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Greetings once more Dakka. I am planning on starting up a small model count Tau army based solely on my love of the FW suits and the Riptide.

Let me preface this by saying I am not trying to make the most cutthroat optimized Farsight Enclaves list. Something tells me even a list casually thrown together will probably hold it's own on inherent power level alone.

The idea for this thread is to pick the brains of those who are already running suit centric lists and see what we can come up with. So without further ado, the framework for what I plan on putting together.

I would like the army to consist of the following units:
2 Riptides
As many Crisis suits as possible
Marker drones as my source of marker lights either in a squad with a controller Commander, spread though out the list in the crisis teams or a combination of both.

Will it be possible to form this framework into something resembling a TAC list without the use of Skyrays, Broadsides, Pathfinders, OvesaStar etc.?

I play in a pretty laid back environment so there shouldn't be any concerns about the lists ability to combat Serpent Spam, ScreamerStar, Seer Council etc.

Very interested in what the prevailing wisdom is on weapon/support system loadouts to allow the Crisis teams to form the bulk of the army.

Specialize your suits for your needs, make shure each team is kitted for the same thing otherwise you lose focus and waste points. That being said personally I am a fan of missle pod suits and some either fusion/plasma or just fusion for a deepstriking suicide unit. Ideally try to keep on the cheaper side cause all the upgrades can add up quickly. For the drones i would recommend running them with a buffmander if that wasn't your plan already.

You can certainly have success in a friendly environment with just straight suit spam. In friendly games I often take no riptides; just suits and it often doesn't seem so friendly ;P

Something like this perhaps:

Farsight- 165
Commander: x2 Missile Pods, Target Lock, Drone Controller, 2 Marker Drones- 152

Riptide: IA, SMS, EWO- 190
Riptide: HBC, SMS, EWO, VT, ECPA- 235

Crisis x3: bonding, x3 TL Missile Pods, Drone Controller, x6 Marker Drones- 209
Crisis x3: bonding, x6 Plasma Rifles, Shield Drone- 171
Crisis x3: bonding, x6 Burst Cannons, Shield Drone- 141
Crisis x3: bonding, x2 target lock, x6 Fusion Blasters, Shield Drone- 181
Crisis x3: bonding, x4 Flamers, x2 Fusion (target lock)- 124
Crisis x3: bonding, x4 Flamers, x2 Fusion (target lock)- 124

Marker Drones x4- 56

Total: 1748

This is obviously a friendly list. You're not going to take this to any GTs and win; you probably aren't even going to place in your average RTT. It's got no psychic defense; very little AA, and your troops carry too much of the kill load.....

BUT! This is supposed to be fun.

So, how's this work? Farsight is included because he fulfills rule #1 which is Look Cool. He's one of the few models in the current meta that is an auto include in most competitive lists but can still ce along for friendly games. You just use him differently. Instead of being an O'Vesa tax, you can have him lead your suit spearhead in a glorious Mont'ka raid.

You've got a Mark'o to roll with the FA drones. They're Bs5 and your main source of marker support. Hide em in the back, moving just within 36" of your target each turn.

Your riptides aren't always going to be benefitting from the marker support; your plasma and fusion crisis teams need the support more while they're alive. Your riptides can do a lot of damage by ripple firing their SMS. Take that hidey Jetbikes! Screw you plaguebearers! They're awesome with marker support but what's even more awesome is...

12 BS5, ignores cover plasma shots! That's what you can get with 4 marker light hits. Your commander's unit averages 5.

So that's one suit team; but they all have a job. Your all-fusion team is your antidote to the guy who's meched up. Your burst team gases hordes, your flamer+fusion teams are excellent skirmishers. They can drop in, maybe without scatter from Farsight and burn some people while the fusion target locks out and pops a tank. Then they run away to re-engage.

I play a variant if this in my friendly games. It's dynamic on the table, not appallingly nasty but you have tools. Best part, you can use some of the weapons systems that never see the light of day in tournaments like burst cannons and flamers.

Thank you both for your input.

That was a brilliant post Shrike and exactly what I was hoping to see. That gives me a lot of food for thought. I appreciate you typing it up.