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In short, I need to know which units are actually BAD, and which units are just never taken in competitive Tau lists because, traditionally, Riptides > everything.

I've played 40k for YEARS, but by coincidence I've never really gone up against a "fluffy" tau list that goes for variety over quality. Besides the variety of the occasional Farsight bomb, Hammerhead or Broadside team, they generally stick to the tried-and-true 2 squads of fire warriors, XV8 commander either vanilla or farsight, then as many riptides as can be packed into the points limit.

So far, it seems to me that at the very least Vespids, Sniper teams, Drone teams, probably the planes and stealth suits ought to be pretty much avoided. They just don't fill a niche that Tau really need with their crazy long range basic weaponry. But I am curious about:

-Kroot and all Kroot related shenanigans (what the fudge is a krootox? How did I not know that even existed??)
-All the special characters (though I generally know farsight is good)
-Ethereals
-Devilfishes
-Any kind of drone attachment besides shields on XV8 blobs
-Pulse Carbines? Who knew fire warriors had two weapons anyway...
-Pirahnas
-Skyrays
-Stealth suits

My friend is much more interested in having a good variety of units than they are in me saying 'well we're gonna take a whole bunch of this one thing because it's really good' and I am curious what I should be straight up crossing out and what should be left in as a possible fun option if they're mid-tier or passable. I've heard the internal balance of the tau codex is kinda clunky, so I'm wary about advising anything that won't carry its own weight.

Kroot are a decent utility unit, and far from terrible. Yeah, they don't hurt from a mile away like Fire Warriors, but they bring options that FWs just don't. I'd say it comes down to what your friend wants his army to look like. If he wants to keep the uniform look of Tau armor, that's cool, if he wants a unit that breaks the color scheme, these guys do it pretty well. Also, Krootoxs (Krootoxi?) are basically vaguely Kroot shaped beasts of burden with big guns on their back. They aren't really that great and Tau don't really have trouble finding big guns.

Ethereals are great elements in a castle/gunline build. Not too sure about the Space Pope, I think he might be too expensive.

Devilfish IMO are okay, but not outstanding. They're just too expensive for what you get, but they do help keep Firewarriors and Ethereals alive, who can jump out and really bring a surprising amount of hurt.

Probably the most common use of drones is a squad of Marker Drones with a Commander with a Controller. T4 BS 5 markerlights for 14/12 points a pop is hard to beat.

There's a reason nobody knows about FW Pulse Carbines...

Pirahna's might seem fragile, but they are CHEAP. If you cost the Gun Drones at 14 points a pop, then you're getting actual Pirahna for 12 points! AV 11 Front, BS 3 Burst Cannon for 12 freaking points. Detach the drones and use them as speed bumps for incoming assault units. Upgrading to Fusion is an option, but forces you to get much closer on a now more expensive paper plane.

Skyrays are a solid buy in TAC lists, almost a must take if you're expecting more fliers and not spamming Skyfire Riptides. Even if you don't use the skyfire, they're solid tanks and more markerlights are never a bad thing.

Stealth Suits aren't great. 30 points a model for a T3 3+ model with a Burst Cannon, compared to the 40 point Pirahna that comes with 2 drones and worst of all -doesn't- share a slot with Riptides and Crisis Teams.

IMO the tau codex has some pretty good internal balance. There are very few units that are a just plain "DO NOT TAKE".

The only ones that fall under that category would be drone squads other than marker light drones (due to the combo mentioned in the post above), vespid (they have the same job as battle suits but do it worse), and the flyers.

As far as the independent characters, the space pope can be a big force multiplier. Aun'Shi is pretty useless though. He gives up too many points to be throwing into combat. Shadow-something? (The pathfinder IC) gives some cool buffs, but as soon as your opponent knows what he does they'll just blow him off the table.

Tau Empire are one of the few codexes where you could reliably represent much of the 40k universe without resorting to allied CADs. For instance, in the book there are the vespids, kroot and tau. You also have a bunch of in universe allies and auxiliries available as well. For instance, Gue'la (human troops) as firewarriors - modeling Firewarriors with Cadian heads for instance. then you could use War Walkers with scatter lasers as Burst Cannon equipped Crisis Suits. Riptide counts as? How about Centurions as Broadsides?

Okay, so i'm starting to consider the battleforce+1 extra squad of fire warriors+1 riptide as a base point for what we build the army into. disregarding the slightly crappy stealth team, which can just infiltrate in and be a nuisance if necessary on some objective, that gives me a fairly balanced 1000 point list.

I'd use one of the suits as a commander, outfit him and his other buddies with anti-tank gear and maybe drop a fusion blaster on a stealth suit, and call the drones that come with the fire warriors a marker light team. that with the ion accelerator on the riptide should be fine for any armor you see at 1000points, and the fire warriors plus the marker lights and pirahna should be good for anti-infantry. Am I on the right track here? Should I call the crisis suits bodyguards or just normal suits, I'm not getting where the extra 10 points is going there...

the_scotsman wrote:
-Kroot and all Kroot related shenanigans (what the fudge is a krootox? How did I not know that even existed??)
-All the special characters (though I generally know farsight is good)
-Ethereals
-Devilfishes
-Any kind of drone attachment besides shields on XV8 blobs
-Pulse Carbines? Who knew fire warriors had two weapons anyway...
-Pirahnas
-Skyrays
-Stealth suits

Kroot are good - Infiltrate to hinder your enemy's plans, spread them in your deploy zone to hinder deep strikers, outflank them after the enemy advances, use sniper rounds to hurt MCs. They just don't have the morale to hold on their on - but with an Ethereal nearby, they are the best tarpit Tau can offer. At least one Kroot Hound if you're outflanking, many for its I5. Krootox isn't that much viable.
Forgeworld Kroot stuff was discontinued, so don't bother with those.

Farsight and Shadowsun are pretty good and fairly costed. Darkstrider is an one-trick pony, but useful. Aun'shi isn't good. Aun'Va (aka Space Pope) is good (Ethereal on steroids), but he'll attract a LOT of enemy fire.
Both FW commanders aren't worth their points.

Ethereals are good. They're fragile and meant to be inside a Devilfish, a building or joined to an unit. Lever leave them by themselves. The auras and morale boost are pretty insane for their cost.

Devilfishes, while not worth their points, now are more resistent and Maelstro missions gave them some better purpose. One know tactic is the Fish of Fury - Devilfishes disembark Fire Warriors (with an Ethereal remaining inside), and at the Shooting Phase, the Devilfishes flat out to block the path to the Fire Warriors. Pretty neat. They can tank shock stuff as well, if needed.

Shield Drones aren't that good. I wouldn't use them (specially now that a lower range gun kills them, then the longer range, with higher AP, kills the people behind). Gun Drones are interesting when you buy Piranhas; outside that, not that useful. Marker drones are only worth with a Commander and Drone Controller. Missile Drones and Broadsides are very nice (if you put a Drone Controller).

Pulse Carbines could be interesting if you put their users inside a Devilfish (with Darkstrider), deploy them near an enemy and shoot it to death with -1T. Outside that, Pulse Rifles are better. Pinning isn't as good as it was.

Piranhas are good. A full school (5 models) costs like a base terminator squad and pack quite the punch. Better yet, they bring cheap drones that are an entire unit (10 drones if you buy 5 piranhas) - really, you're paying 16p for a fast skimmer with a S5 gun. No deal lke that can be found anywhere else. The only reasonable upgrade is Sensor Spines to the most protected Piranha.

Skyrays are pretty good, but use their ammo wisely. Fill the enemy with markerlights to fire the missiles; don't use the BS4 when you can use cover-ignoring; LOS-ignoring BS5. A Hammerhead with the missile turret + SMS can substitute a Skyray for AA business (worse performance, but the weapons remain for the entire game)

I don't like Stealth suits. Too expensive for their measly T3 W1. Had they T4, I could give them some thought. Kroot bother the enemy more than Stealthies with Infiltrate.

 Vector Strike wrote:


Missile Drones and Broadsides are very nice (if you put a Drone Controller).

Missile Drones actually don't benefit from Drone Controllers. There are two different listings of Drone Controller in the Tau dex, the one in the back of the book states that drones in the users unit use the wielder's BS. The longer listing towards the middle of the book (page 68 I think), states that only gun, marker and sniper drones get the effect.

Oh, you're right... Forgot about that.

Well, that's when markerlights come in!