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Looking to get back after 12 years away and Tau appeal the most to me. I'm wanting to at least stay partially true to the fluff without going uber-cheese route, but I'm not up to speed on 6th edition rules nor specific tactics/equipment so likely there's a LOT of room for improvement as I'm probably picking wrong loadouts or just wrong units entirely

1,000pt Tau Empire - Tau Expeditionary Force
HQ
Commander @ 180
- Plasma Rifle
- Cyclic Ion Blaster
- Stimulant Injector
- Shield Generator
- Iridium XV8-02 Battlesuit

ELITE
XV104 Riptide @ 190
- Ion Accelerator
- TL SMS
- Early Warning Override

3x XV8 Crisis Battlesuits @ 131
- 2x TL Plasma Rifle ("Burning Eye")
- 1x TL Fusion Blaster ("Sunforge") w/Target Lock

TROOPS
10x Fire Warriors (incl. Shas'ui) @ 198
- Bonding Knife
- Devilfish w/SMS, Decoy, Sensor Spines

10x Fire Warriors (incl. Shas'ui) @ 110
- Bonding Knife

HEAVY SUPPORT
Hammerhead Gunship @ 138
- Railgun w/Submunition
- Decoy
- Auto. Repair System

This should put me at 947, and I'm not sure what to change to get to 1,000 (I would likely expand this to 1250 soon so suggestions for expansion are welcomed as well, but for now 1000 is a good starting point). My idea would be to have the foot FW team and the Riptide form my firebase along with the Hammerhead. The mobile FW team, the Crisis team and the Commander push forward to seize ground and blast key enemy units in what amounts to the Tau "Mont'ka" strategy, with the goal being able to fall back quickly if necessary, draw the enemy in (preferably split them) and concentrate on removing high-threat units quickly.

This is mostly based on what figures I have available (minus the Riptide and Commander which I don't have yet and plan to get soon), also at my disposal is three XV25 stealth suits and three Pirahna skimmers. I'm trying to remain true to the fluff so that's the reason for the FW squads having Bonding + Shas'ui, but I'm not adamant about it as long as my army remains fairly true to the background. I want to avoid using allies or Farsight Enclave if at all possible as I dislike the allies rules entirely and Farsight is a traitor to the Greater Good

Alright I will give a few suggestions for your army that I would do if I were you.

The Commander I would reconsider the shield gen just because it cost a lot. I would replace it with drone controller and give him 2 marker drones instead of the shield generator.
Also the cyclic ion blaster is a cool gun but I would just give him another plasma so would be
Commander with:
plasma
plasma
drone controller
stim injector
target lock
2 marker drones

You are missing markerlights as a whole you have NONE and you need them

For the XV8s I would give them all target locks, all marker drones and either two plasmas (not twin linked) or two missile pods.

Firewarriors I wouldn't take the Shas'ui or bonding knife and I would bring another unit of them or a unit of Kroot (possibly with a hound) but defiantly with sniper rounds.

For hammerhead I wouldn't take the decoy launcher or the auto repair system I would take disruption pod and then take longstrike makes it a lot better. The submunition rounds are nice though.

SO just a few loadout changes and add markerlights from drones attached to the XV8s.
As for expanding your army your best bets would be to get 2 broadsides, some kroot for more troops (because your firewarriors will probably die fairly quickly) and some pathfinders for some markerlight support.

SInce you do have 3 stealth suits I would bring them with the burst cannons because at 90 points you have a slot for them in the elite section. Just deep strike them in behind enemy lines where there is a squishy unit and then just blast them with 12 burst cannon shots.
Same with the piranhas I like the ones I have I find them useful because just at base points value you get 2 gun drones attached which is awesome. Basically 2 gun drones cost 24 points so essentially you are paying 16 points for a 2hp skimmer with a burst cannon. Again I just deep strike mine attack something not to hard to kill and detach drones.

Those 2 units will just help you distract the enemy as you fire at more dangerous units.
Just a few suggestions, everyone plays differently and I am not a power gamer so lots of people might disagree with some of the stuff I said


Automatically Appended Next Post:
So I didn't actually show you what it would look like but here is what you COULD do based on what I suggested
This will give you markerlight support that you need and bring you up to 1250, not the best list but still will do alright.
This would just involve buying a group of kroot and thats all to get to 1250. If you replace the piranhas (probably the first thing to replace) and stealth team with broadsides and pathfinders that would be best tho but this is based on the least amount of money spent to get where you want....budget gaming Hopefully my math is right on this one.

HQ
Commander
Drone Controller
Target Lock
Plasma
Plasma
2 Marker Drones
152 points

Troops
10 Firewarriors 90
10 Firewarriors 90
13 Kroot sniper rounds 91

Elites
3 XV8s each with
2 missile pods
Target lock
2 marker drones
243 Points

XV104 Riptide
Ion Accelerator
TL SMS
Early Warning Override
190 points

Stealth team (stock)
90 Points

Fast Attack
3 Piranhas (stock)
120 Points

Heavy Support
Hammerhead
Longstrike
TL SMS Drones
Disruption pod
185 points

Total points 1251