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So, I have never played any Tau before. I currently play Grey Knights (primarily Draigo Wing) and Dark Eldar.

That being said I am seriously considering starting a Tau collection. The question is, what models to get to start.

I have heard elsewhere that a good starting package would be some Crisis Battlesuits, 1-2 Riptides, some Fire Warriors and some Pathfinders.

Thoughts?

Kroot > Firewarriors.

Crisis Suits are excellent; but do you plan on running Farsight Enclaves? If not, they'll be competing with Riptides for Elites slots.

Riptides are wonderful.

Pathfinders are meh. Does your gaming group allow Forgeworld? Tetras are a great source of marker support. If not, I prefer to get my markers from Skyrays and when necessary, marker drones.

There's plenty of Tau tactical reading to be had on this forum. Read a lot before you buy. And remember, the meta is constantly changing. Nids, IG and Orks are on the horizon. Think about what you'll need to be competitive against them as well.

Fire Warriors are so unloved. I love FW. It's really just opinion as they do different things

I think pathfinders are a good choice if you want to
save yourself some money and pathfinders are helpful when played right and most none tau players can't tell the difrance
Between path finders and fire warriors

That's a bad tactic to suggest to someone starting a new army. You're basically saying "confuse your opponent so you can win". Grow up.

Jamo wrote:
That's a bad tactic to suggest to someone starting a new army. You're basically saying "confuse your opponent so you can win". Grow up.

I really dont think that is what he meant.

To start I'd go battle force, riptide, pathfinders and Fireblade then go from there.

Im a sticker for fire warriors over kroot, but both have their strengths and weaknesses. If you decide to take alot of fire warriors, an ethereal is good as a support HQ to stick with them for the buffs he gives out, especially storm of fire which makes 3-4 FW teams in rapid fire range lethal, especially with marker support.

Pathfinders are brilliant, marker drones are overcosted for BS2. Yes they can move but theyre still not very reliable and cost more than pathfinders. Sky rays are not a good source of markerlight support in the slightest, for the cost of a skyray you get 10 pathfinders, thats 2 BS4 Markers vs 10 BS3 markers. You do the math. Skyrays are good, but theyre good for AA and alpha striking heavy armour units, not for marker support.

Id say a good place to start as tau would be a couple of FW teams, a pathfinder box (for 2 units of 5) a hammerhead/skyray box (build it so you can swap the turrets) a riptide and a crisis suit box. For you HQ, I personally like commanders, but really it depends on what you want. Commanders are a "DIY" HQ, they can range from 100pts to about 165 depending on what you want from them, the cheaper end just being a BS5 crisis suit with good leadership and a warlord trait, to a purely supporting unit that gives his squad incredibly good buffs, to a beatstick with a 2+/4+ W4 T5 and an unholy amount of marine killing firepower.

Ethereals are the cheapest HQ, theyre not great as a warlord in my opinion as they are quite squishy and they already give up a victory point when killed so if they become the warlord aswell then your opponent will paint a bullseye on his head. They are great buff units for groups of fire warriors and kroot though, as their buff abilities affect everyone within 12", not just the squad hes joined to

Fireblades are fairly cheap, tougher than an ethereal, theyre alright but not great. They do synergise well with an ethereal and FW blobs in larger games to give you "all the dakka" as it where, but Im not a massive fan of them to be honest.

I would advise go for a commander and join him to the crisis team. Dont bother getting the finecast one though, its an overpriced extremely fragile model, youre better off buying the old metal/plastic commander off ebay or just using a plastic crisis suit and mark/convert him suitably

OP, I was in your shoes not too long ago. I am a long time 40K player. However, I had to take a break due to work. Now I have some time and also decided to pick up Tau. I had a dusty old Tau Army box with the previous Tau Codex in it. So, I decided Tau. First thing is first. I picked up the new Codex. From reading here and looking through the new book, I found my somewhat randomly selected new army to build...to be one that is quite powerful.

Most bang for your buck. That's how I bought my batch of models. Buy the Farsight Enclave Codex. It's lots of fluff, but it has a lot of versatility / options.

I support my local FLGS wherever I go. So buy there. But also check out the Firebase Support Cadre on the GW sight. I bought one. It's not a bad price for 6 Broadsides and a Riptide. 6 Broadsides is a ton, maybe only feasible in a 1850-2000+ point army.

The Tau Battleforce is not bad. It contains 3 Crisis Suits (great units) and 12 Fire Warriors (mixed reviews here). It also has a Piranha (so so IMO) and 3 Stealth Suits (meh, but has a Marker Light Drone). But for the cost, not too shabby. Plus it has a variety to tool around with.

I'd get a Cadre Fireblade and Ethereal. Cheap HQs in a Tau army. Plus they're single models, so it just adds some easy flexibility to what you want to do and your army builds.

The Hammerhead is a great model. You can make one tank be either 1: a Railhead, 2: Ionhead, or 3: Sky Ray. So, it'll let you have a broad range of options to mess around in a list. And in a pinch...a Devilfish (too many points for a transport IMO).

Pick up a 4 pack of Kroot Hounds. 1 dog per Kroot squad adds acute senses. Kroot, you either like them or hate them. They are fragile, but infiltrate and can be outfitted with sniper rounds; so they are nice IMO.

Hope this helps. Use magnets.

rathkoron wrote:
So, I have never played any Tau before. I currently play Grey Knights (primarily Draigo Wing) and Dark Eldar.

That being said I am seriously considering starting a Tau collection. The question is, what models to get to start.

I have heard elsewhere that a good starting package would be some Crisis Battlesuits, 1-2 Riptides, some Fire Warriors and some Pathfinders.

Thoughts?

Cant go wrong with a battle force. http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?prodId=prod1990148a

Are we sure the Hammerhead kit can still be made into a Skyray? I thought I heard the readjusted that sprue so you had to buy an upgrade kit.....typical.

 The Shrike wrote:
Are we sure the Hammerhead kit can still be made into a Skyray? I thought I heard the readjusted that sprue so you had to buy an upgrade kit.....typical.

Nope it is a 2 part kit. Pretty much just relabeled the old Skyray box and dropped the Hammerhead kit.

I am a FW fan myself. They are a very solid choice for a troop based Tau force. Now if you are coming off GK, A Farsight Enclave with Suits would be a fun and solid list to play.