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So I play 2500 points and single FOC. We allow all data slates. I really like the base of this army but am having a hard time finishing out my points in a way that I feel works week. And suggestions or ideas are very welcome. Thanks!

Primary Detachment: Tau

Commander - 154
-Command and Control Node
-Multi Spectrum Sensor Suite
-Onigar Gautlet
-Vectored Retro Thrusters
-X2 Shield Drones

Etherial - 50

Kroot - 120
-X20

Fire Warrior - 108
-X12

Fire Warrior - 108
-X12

Riptide - 205
-HBC
-TL Fusion Blaster
-EWO
-Vel. Tracker

Crisis Team - 166
-X3
-X2 Mssl Pod
-X2 Target Lock

Pathfinders - 110
X10

Sniper Drone Team - 133
-X8 Drones

Allied Detachment: Ultra Marines

Tigerius - 165

Taq. Squad - 165
-X10
-Melta G.
-Plasma C.

Storm Talon - 125
-Sky Hammer Mssls

Storm Talon - 125
-Sky Hammer Mssls

Centurian Dev. - 560
-X6
-X5 Grav C.
-X1 TL Las C. Occasion
-X6 Mssl L.
-Omni Scope

StormRaven - 200
-TL Assault C
-TL M. Melta

2494 Any thoughts or opinions are welcome

Well at this point level I would consider dumping the buffmander and adding Farsight, Torchstar and O'Vesa to the unit.

This would also enable you to shift the Crisis teams to troops. Dumping the FWs and Kroot for more raw killing power.

Also why does your Riptide have a VT when he's terrible against flyers even with it? Also no EWO is always a mistake on the Iontide. Get it on there! Stims are good but not always needed. Also you've costed him at 50 points more than he should be. Though please don't tell me you've given hik the terrible drones? Possibly dump him and get the FBSC whuch is super powered.

Also you're light on AA with only the Stormtalon a credible threat to flyers. Missilesides and Skyrays would be good fits.
Though Crisis with 2 missile pods and a VT each are pretty solid AA as a troops choice for 73 points a model.

Pathfinders are a poor source of MLs Mark'o commanders and Skyrays are the way forward. Also the BSF does literally nothing for them so why take it?

So I went through the list and you were right. I had a couple of things wrong. The riptide used to have the drones, but I hated them so I had dropped them and forgotten to change the points. Also you were right about the BSF on the pathfinders. I am not sure what I was thinking. 5th edition NF had me thinking wrong. Why don't you like them for ML's ? I had considered a unit of marker drones but the BS 2 deterred me. Also, why do you hate the Riptide vs Flyers? I have had descent luck with him bringing down flyers? I have never tried the EWS, can you explain why you like it so much? What is a Mark'o Commander? I really like the skyway, but I have found ground vehicles to be way to soft in 6th edition and have grown to much prefer 100% foot slogging army's. I actually hate the Drop pod in my army, but I have found the forward threat the marines provide helps my army out. I wouldn't mind finding a different way to use them, I would love a storm raven, but unless I take the formation I can't because of FOC. And that requires a 2nd storm Talon. Thanks for the input.

Pathfinders are soft FB and not mobile. Mark'o is a commander with 2 missile pods target lock and drone controller (possibly iridium if points allow) and put him with a unit of 5-6 marker drones. Now you have mobile bs5 MLs.

With a VT the Riptide puts on average 1.5 S7 hits and 3 S5 hits on a flyer for 240 points that is not good spend. Compare with 240 points of Broadsides (3 Sides, 3 drones) without VTs but with EWO so they can do this before the flyer gets a chance to fire. That's 4.67 S7 hits and 3.67 S5 hits over triple the damage output against AV12 flyers.

EWO is brokenly good for 5 points. It allows you to deal with anything your opponent throws at you first. It makes you eat DP armies and nueters flyers before they get their alphastrike. It wipes teleporting terminators and forces your opponent to come at you from his own deployment zone.

Skyrays are great because you alphastrike then your opponent will most likely ignore them. They (like missilesides) offer great AA you don't need a flyer for that not with Tau!

So I played a couple games yesterday with a list that is somewhat similar to this. I tried out the EWO and you were right, it was pretty cool. I have a couple questions though. So in the case of a riptide, can he fire both of his weapons, and can they be at different targets? Or any model with two weapons for that matter? Also I tried out the Heavy Burst Cannon for one game and kind of liked it. Any opinions on the HBC vs. the IA? So the pathfinders.... I agree that they are soft, and they aren't real mobile, although I did have a moderate amount of success snap firing the marker lights when I had to move, but I wanted to hear you opinion on weather they, or the marker drones are a better choice if taking a commander with drone controller isn't an option. The buffmander I have is critical to this list, and the etherial is critical to the way I play. I am not willing to drop either. Also I use the pathfinders mostly to drop the IA template on dudes heads ignoring cover, if I take the HBC are the marker lights even necessary? Thanks for your help.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
So the list in the original post has been edited to my latest version. I am using the storm wing formation data slate in order to bring all the flyers. The HBC or the IA on the Riptide is a choice I can't seem to make up my mind on. Any opinions are welcome. The pathfinders are also a unit I can't decide on. They are immobile for the most part and squishy, but all in all they have served me fairly decently, though I have only played three games with the basic list. The onigar gauntlet is something I originally added to use up left over points, but in a game yesterday the dude killed two ironclad's with it. So now I can't bring myself to ditch it. I also wouldn't mind finding room for a few whiled drones on the etherial for survivability.