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I've been combing through sample army lists presented in both the FW and GW material and can't seem to nail this down. I would really like to create a nice fluffy Tau army, and seeing as a few ebay "army purchases" have given me nearly 140 Firewarriors (yet only 17 carbines) I was thinking to create little squads as close to the fluff as possible.

I'm stuck though - what is the standard number of Firewarriors in a tactical team? The official army lists are all over the place, with between 6 and 12 in the Taros campaign book in various scenarios. Is there anything in the BL fluff market that points to a standard number?

No standard number at all, but a few numbers to consider.

1) A lot of buffs to Tau Pulse Rifle/Pulse Carbine fire work best when you have more models in the buffed unit rather than more units to buff, so bigger is better.

2) A unit of six to eight models must make a morale check when it loses two models. A unit of nine to twelve models must make a morale check when it loses three models.

3) Devilfish can haul up to twelve models.

So with that in mind, my recommendation is at least 9 per team and it's probably best to max out as transport size limitations and the presence of independent characters allow.