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Hey Dakka, I was considering collecting a Tau force based around lots of Kroot, Pathfinders and Stealth Teams, as a project for the new year. I've a rough idea of what I'd like:

(HQ)>1 Tau Commander

(Elites)>2 Crisis Suits

(Elites)>Stealth Team

(Elites)>Stealth Team

(Troops)>Large Kroot Carnivore squad with some hounds and a Krootox

(Troops)>Large Kroot Carnivore squad with some hounds and a Krootox

(Troops x 4)>Barebones 10 man Kroot squads

(Fast Attack)>10 Pathfinders with Pulse Accelorator

(Fast Attack)>5 Pathfinders with x3 Rail rifles

(Fast Attack)>5 Pathfinders with x3 Ion rifles

How can I give this sort of list a bit of edge, either by upgrading units, adding new ones or scrapping them? Ideally I'd like to keep it mainly infantry based and not include any flyers or heavy sort of units like Hammerheads or Riptides. I play mainly against DW, Necrons and Tau gunline (sans Riptides).

I would not take the Krootox. Every Kroot squad needs at least one Hound as it's a mere 5 points to be able to reroll a crucial Outflank. Snipers are also really good if you equip the entire squad.

Increase your XV8 team to 3 units. Make sure to equip the powerhouse wargear on your commander, like Command and Control Nodule, Multi-spectrum Sensor Suite, and Puretide Engram Neurochip. Iridium suits are also good if you want a survivable model.

Maybe consider Darkstrider to go with the Pathfinders.

An experienced Tau player can probably give better advice or point out if I made any mistakes, but don't hold your breath since everyone this edition tends to be playing XV8 and Riptide lists with maybe one squad of Kroot and not full Kroot or Stealthsuit armies. You're also handicapping yourself by not taking heavy support as there's Knarlocs and good tanks there.

Knarlocs would go well, but how do I use them in games aside from Apocalypse? I have the first Apocalypse rule book, would it be sufficient to simply use the entry in there and have it take up a HS slot?

I actually would start with your heavy support, because you literally have none.

My advice would be a broadside or two. Heavy rail rifle broadsides would be a good start for a new comer to Tau. A hammerhead is a must for newcomers. Get long strike as well.

Next I would get Fire warriors. They are going to be essential! At least 2 squads minimum.

Get an ethereal too. They are really good now.

Next I would get more Crisis suits. They still serve an important role in Tau tactics. Recommended load outs would be dual plasma rifles, dual fusion blasters, or dual missile pods with velocity trackers for flyers.

And lastly, a Riptide to draw massive amounts of fire.

Stealth suits are garbage. Maybe not garbage but, really expensive stuff you never never want to use. So yes, garbage.


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Ok I could be helpful instead of whatever that was. I use three 20 man kroot squads each with a hound and sniper rifles. They absolutely wreck MC's and when at full capacity can reliably strip hp from flyers and obviously transports go boom. Usually the jig is up so-to-speak once the first few things go smush and/or boom. People don't expect kroot squads to eat their lunch like that. So once the threat is established they become a target quickly. That's where you need support that stealth suits absolutely do not provide. This is when you need riptides or crisis suits to apply a nice fist-to-face to draw attention.
That being said, riptides are great bullet magnets. Maybe not magnets so much as, think of Cookie Monster, except he eats bullets. In vanilla tau they are a must have, at least two. In farsight lists less so because you can rock all crisis suits. I thinks stealth suits suffer from being miss classified as elites instead of fast attacks. Even then, meh.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Wow, ok and your pathfinders are for ml's, that's it. You don't need them for other stuff. You need markerlights, I run 3-4 five man squads naked. More marker hits then you know what to do with and at least one squad is always left at the end. (You can't just hunt pathfinders all day) but when you make them a threat they will be dealt with. So naked pathfinders on at least two squads.
I understand riptides and hammerheads aren't what you want. But without them you will struggle. Your list as it is will just be fodder. There are just so many threats you have no answers to. Wave serpents are so common now and they will eat you. Also more longstanding threats like basilisks, Russ's, riptides, raiders, Valkyries, space turkeys, really anything that flies and your helpless. Even a terminator squad will just destroy this list and everybody has one. It seems like your playing to the weaknesses of your codex. If you aren't going to use riptides or tanks, you will need 9 broadsides just for the firepower.
Sorry man it's just not a viable way to go about it. It's a tear down.

When you build any army, every unit needs to have a job. Tau are no different.

Ask yourself, what do I need to do to win most missions?

You need to hold objectives (by the end) and usually be able to kill the enemy's most dangerous units while preserving yours. It sounds simple but so many people don't consider this type of stuff when building their list.

We'll go through pros/cons for each thing you need to do:

Objectives: Tau are generally weak in the troop department. It's the balancing act for having so much mobile firepower. If you exclude taking allies, your best troop option are Kroot for their versatility. However, Firewarriors have their place as well. If you're learning, take a little of both.

If you choose to play Farsight Enclaves, that's a whole 'nother story. Their scoring is actually pretty strong due to their ability to take cheap solo-suits that are very easy to conceal.

Kill-power: Broadsides, Crisis suits, Riptides. These are some of the deadliest shooting units in the game. With proper markerlight support, you can devastate the enemy's capabilities. But what's the right ratio of firepower to marker support? You must be careful not to sacrifice too much real firepower for theoretical firepower (markerlights). I would say you need 2 small sources of markerlights at 1000 points, 3 at 1500 and 4 at 1850-2000. These could be tetras, small pathfinder units etc. If you have more resilient and efficient marker support that is more expensive like a Mark'o with BS5 marker drones, then you could have a lower total number of marker sources. The moral of the story is, don't overdo it.

You're new to Tau. Take what you think is fun to play with and get a feel for the army using general principles. Then when you get good, start making "competitive" considerations.

^^ Shrike is gently poking fun at me because I use to many ml's. But you should listen to him. He knows his gak.

It as others have stated depends on your overall goal. do you want it competitive, or just for fun?.

If your running kroot, i would suggest an ethereal, and some sort of reserve modifier like a com relay.

They tend to fall apart really easily. so having an ethereal near by is great.

Krootoxs arnt that bad. have had decent situations where they hit rear armor after an outflank. but otherwise arnt that points effective compared to just deepstriking a suit with fusions.

1 hound per and snipers are a no brainer.

Pulse accelerator is not that good.

You need to come up with a plan for more Anti tank. as that is the current weakness it seems.

Kroot are the spoon or fork of the Tau swiss army knife. Without the can openers of broadsides, tanks, and the knives of riptides and crisis teams, you're going to starve out there

This thread has me thinking about knarlocs. Hmmmmm....

The Knarlocs are rather terrible if you ask me. The goaded one is majority T3, the other Knarloc has lackluster shooting and it's T5 with no real save.

 MechaBeast wrote:
Kroot are the spoon or fork of the Tau swiss army knife.

Sporks. They're a thing.