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Picked up a tau army recently. I have been doing some research into what to get to flesh them our some more.

As it stands I got a hammer head, 60 fire warriors, a riptide, 4 broadsides, 6 crisis suits, and a etherial.

After research I believe next purchases will be pathfinders and some stealth suits. Having very little tau experience just wondering what anybody thinks would help make thislittle group of models into a halfway decent mid point level army (looking 1250-1850 range.

I ask this because there is a lot of back and forth saying what is good and what is not and so much co tradictiin I figured maybe I could hear from some experienced tau players on the matter

With the power of 7th edition Objective Secured you will want to pick up a pair of Devilfish. Ethereals with a full compliment of Firewarriors dropping out of a Devilfish can now be effective. Pathfinders or some other form of Marker lights are going to be very useful. I recommend getting 1-2 Skyrays for the base you have, the Railhead isn't very effective anymore, but Skyrays are awesome. They can blow their load in one turn and become mobile Skyfire Markerlights after that.

That is where I'd start, two Devilfish, Two Skyrays, and a box or two of Pathfinders.

I prefer Kroot for troop purposes. Cheap, and very mobile, with just enough bodies to be survivable.

Devilfish still seem too expensive for me. But if you play them aggressively you can still tank shock or ram to do some damage.

I agree on the Skyrays. Very useful tank that really is worth it's point cost. Tough enough to soak up fire, enough firepower to do some damage to most MCs, and provides decent support for other units.

Piranha are also very nice. It's basically 2 units for a very nice price. Two very useful screening units to block transports, incoming fire, and even delay enemy assaults.

Personally I'm not a big fan of stealth suits. They just don't really have the versatility and cost effectiveness of Kroot or crisis suits. Even Piranha do the same job at a much better cost.

Devilfish are actually useful now with the troop scoring thing. Provided you have other targets with armor, theyre pretty survivable. If you only have 1 then guess what every S7+ weapon is going to be firing at it since its a 24" last minute objective stealer. Which that in itself makes it stronger, as its a much higher threat than before for free. Objective Secured is rather nuts on such a fast model.

OK scoring devilfish sound good esp with thier +1 cover now for 3+ if jinking . I can either build a skyray gun or look for the bits. Krooot I like the models and outflanking with acute senses seems great from kroot hounds dive em sniper rounds and call it good there. I will likely be allying them with eldar usually as that and orks are my main two armies but might field with my space marines too sometimes. On thier own I agree on the need for multiple tanks to work. Maybe o can find used devilfish in batches on eBay

i wouldnt doubt it, devilfish are probably the least used model in the tau codex thats not utterly useless (lookin at you Vespid and Fighter....) and the new found strength is only if you know how to use them. You wont find any deals like you can for Orks but at least cheaper and salvageable ones than brand new, which is what counts.

Also would like to add i dont think the railgun is dead with current rules. It has a table-long shot, so odds are it wont jink anyway and if it does markerlights bring it back up. Ionheads are dead, because they NEED to shoot that pi plate to be worth it - markerlights cant allow them to fire blasts if they were forced to fire snaps, even if you up them to BS8 somehow lol. Skyrays are definitely better though, much easier to pull off the "I didnt move so i fire both networked markerlights at BS4, and then my 6 missiles at BS5/6" followed by the usual supporty role.

If you have the money and an accepting group, look for Forgeworld Tetras and Barracudas