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Hi! Im going to be playing my tau sometime soon against some probably eldar or space marines, and ill be playing with a space marine player. Im not into list tailoring, but i always want to make sure I have something balanced that also has a strong chance of doing some damage to high end lists (plus i really hate wave serpents) let me know what you think!

Commander MP x2 Target Lock, PED, Neuroweb
Ethereal

Crisis Suit x 3 + MPx2
Crisis Suit x 3 + PRx2
Riptide +Ion+ SMS

FW x10
FW x10
Kroot x10 +sniper rounds

Pathfinder x4
Pathfinder x4

Broadside x3 (havent decided on Rails or HYMP)
Hammerhead +Subs+ Longstrike
Sniper drone team (Drone x3 Marks x1)

Aegis

The plan is for the Commander to join the broadsides behind an aegis with the 2 firewarrior teams and the ethereal , kroot will likely infiltrate and hold an objective.

Any thoughts?

I can't see anything wrong with the list, however I don't play Tau in the same way. Not too sure about the Pathfinders, that's two victory points when playing the Scouring, I have done the same thing (2 squads of 4) and they never seem to do anything useful, they can't shoot the ML once having moved and by the time they can shoot there's not much they can shoot at because i had to move them out of the way to keep them from dying. I prefer using ML drones myself. It might be worth adding a Multi-spectrum Suite to your Commander, then your Broadsides can Ignore Cover (but that means no shooting from the Commander). I'm not sure how a troop heavy list would work without any Devilfishes, i don't think it's a good idea to hold your troops back with your Commander, they are used to capture objectives, if you hold too many points behind the Aegis there'll be a barrier of 30-36" that the opponent won't enter but it won't be hard to stay out of range and win by capturing objectives.

Some weird combos and poor choices.

The Commander isn't worth if you're not doing a Mark'o or Buffmander, or even in a pinch the drone commander. Likewise I'd probably drop the Ethereal he's great as a cheap mandatory HQ but otherwise probably best left at home.

Crisis teams are OK but if you want S7 spam Broadsides do it better. If you're not running Enclaves you need your crisis to fill gaps in your army.

Riptide should always have EWO it is stupid for 5 points. Generally they work best in pairs or more.

10 FWs is a waste you want 6,9 or 12. 6 is cheap and is less of a liability in assault and works well with an Ethereal. 9 gives you that magic 3 casualties to cause a morale check. 12 is only worth it if you're taking a Fireblade. In this list 3 units of 6 wouldbe my advice.

Pathfinders are the worst source of MLs in the codex. Mark'o. Buffmander and Skyrays are what you should be using for MLs. Mobile marker lights (ML like buffs) that don't give up first blood easily are the way forward.

Broadsides should ALWAYS and I mean always be HYMP with EWO and if points allow take the missiles drones they are amazing for just 12 points.

Longstrike works better on an Ionhead but is not a great use of points either way. Ion head gets use from overwatch and more use from the tank hunters as S10 doesnt really need it against AV10-12 and you would be wasting a 200 point tank firing it at AV14 with a less than 1 in 4 chance of stopping it. Sniper Drones are cool when used on mass but again Missilesides really are the best spend of points in HS closely followed by Skyrays.

You have nothing in your list that is s threat to AV14 so I'd advise taking some fusion. Long strike is literally the only thing that can even hurt AV14 and he's terrible at that job.

If you want to kill Serpents take a Firebase Support Cadre that kills Serpents for fun. Basically any spamming of Missilesides will take down Serpents quickly.

Take out the Kroot's I don't know that much about Tau but for as far as I know the Kroot are good for absolutely nothing except if you're doing kauyon.

Eowyn Cloud wrote:
Take out the Kroot's I don't know that much about Tau but for as far as I know the Kroot are good for absolutely nothing except if you're doing kauyon.

Kroot are the most competitive troops choice for Tau Empire. 7 point snipers is great value.

 FlingitNow wrote:

Eowyn Cloud wrote:
Take out the Kroot's I don't know that much about Tau but for as far as I know the Kroot are good for absolutely nothing except if you're doing kauyon.

Kroot are the most competitive troops choice for Tau Empire. 7 point snipers is great value.

That makes no sence, BS 3 on a sniper? That's not good at all, also it's a heavy weapon so the have to stand STILL to shoot it, sounds pretty damn useless to me.....

All I can say is watch out for the Drop Pod Armies, They are going to have their troops in your face the first round and can wreak havoc behind your ageis and for your broadsides/hammerhead.

Bs3 on a sniper for 7 points is the best sniper around. Unless you care to name another sniper unit that puts 10 hits on the enemy for 140points and over 3 precision strikes. Please share.

They can outflank and they are cheapest source of wounds and they are 7 point boltguns (more boltguns hits per point than Marines).

There is a reason they are very common on the competitive scene. You said yourself you know nothing about Tau and now you've proven. Why offer advice on a subject that you have no understanding of?

Drop pod armies? Properly constructed Tau laugh at DP armies and kill most of them before they ever get to shoot.

And when they loose their broadsides to sternguard and their hammerheads to a combat squad, and a squad of kroot/pathfinders get knocked down and pinned turn 1 that defiantly has no impact on their gameplay at all. Your right they are common but they are not unbeatable and a properly constructed drop army can wreak a "lets stand and shoot" tau army. And as i facesmashed two tau players with very similar lists on sunday despite me "not knowing", i can very reasonably say most tau armies dont know how to handle a drop/deep strike army.

I actually do know something about tau since a friend of mine plays them but whatever I am not going to go into a pointless argument of idiotness, if you say you're right, then I'm sorry that I was just trying to help really, apologies for wanting to help the OP

ghilliemarine wrote:
And when they loose their broadsides to sternguard and their hammerheads to a combat squad, and a squad of kroot/pathfinders get knocked down and pinned turn 1 that defiantly has no impact on their gameplay at all. Your right they are common but they are not unbeatable and a properly constructed drop army can wreak a "lets stand and shoot" tau army. And as i facesmashed two tau players with very similar lists on sunday despite me "not knowing", i can very reasonably say most tau armies dont know how to handle a drop/deep strike army.

You drop half your army in and a Tau army intercepts with 70%+ of its firepower before your Sternguard and combat squads do anything. Most half decent Tau armies intercept drop armies off the board as they arrive your movement phase becomes the Tau's strongest phase for shooting...

 FlingitNow wrote:
You drop half your army in and a Tau army intercepts with 70%+ of its firepower before your Sternguard and combat squads do anything. Most half decent Tau armies intercept drop armies off the board as they arrive your movement phase becomes the Tau's strongest phase for shooting...

3+ Saves for the win and if their iron hands 6+ feel no pain. Also just allocate wounds to a CM with artificer armour and a shield eternal thats attached to the sternguard and lookout sir whenever a wound gets by. Most Half-decent drop armies plan for a few squads to get burned when they land, Tau aren't unbeatable man, no army is.

I never said Tau were unbeatable just that Drop Pod lists are a bad idea against Tau. Space Marines and Tau together are nigh unbeatable. Drop pod lists rely on the alpha strike to be effective Tau deny them that and you just end up drip feeding your army into the Tau guns. Marines can beat Tau but to do that you want to take advantage of their weaknesses not play to their strengths.

Dropping a SW librarian against tau is incredibly effective.

Dropping a SW librarian against tau is incredibly effective.

If he lives long enough to cast Jaws and it isn't denied on 4 dice (probably on a 4+ with allies around). Drop Podding 4 Rune Priests however is a more viable tactic. But it is a 1 trick pony army.