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Admittedly I'm a fairly new player, I've only got about 8 games under my belt but I'm yet to win.

Last night I played a guy with a cool looking Imperial Fist army (I'm Tau). We managed to fit in two games. The first, I got tabled in turn 3 and only managed to inflict a single wound on a Centurion. The second game (after my opponent totally gimped his army) started better but quickly went downhill and I got tabled again (managed to last until turn 4 this time).

Think I need new dice!

The star of his army was a Deimos Vindicator Laser Destroyer, which has put me right off Forgeworld models.

What did you bring? What was your army list?

Sounds like you need to work on your own list to have answers to Forge World stuff. The best Riptides, a squad of Broadsides, a couple units that will for sure wipe out what they look at. Farsight with Bodyguards using Fusion Blasters for instance. Adjust your list so that you have options during deployment to keep some things off the table and some very heavy hitting items to take out a major threat.

Considering a Laser Destroyer is what, two shots if it doesn't move? Yeah, it's an instant killer of your XV8s but a Riptide can take the shots on the chin. Engage with that. Keep your XV8s in Reserve, drop them in after the Riptide killed the Vindicator. Add those little Drones for extra wounds and deploy the squads in a way that the drones act as the first Wounds taken.

There's no reason to worry about Forge World. Very few of the models are significantly overpowered, and you'd have died just as easy to a tri Las Predator as Tau with T4 Suits. Tau really do have better weapon platforms than a Deimos can hope for.

If you give a rundown of your list, I'm sure many people here will be happy to guide you to a better list, but no amount of good models will substitute good planning and good use of what you have.

The laser destroyer is a fantastic model. Just a heavily armoured box with a cannon on it. I love it.

But that's aesthetics. I've never played it. Don't know what it does.

This is my army - http://hq-builder.com/shared/106308

I built it based on the models I liked rather that ones that would win games and, other than a single Piranha, it's every model I've got. I know roughly what to do to make it better (basically go Farsight Enclave and get an ethereal).

Also, I'm determined to get everything painted before I buy anything new.

 pumpinchimp wrote:
This is my army - http://hq-builder.com/shared/106308

I built it based on the models I liked rather that ones that would win games and, other than a single Piranha, it's every model I've got. I know roughly what to do to make it better (basically go Farsight Enclave and get an ethereal).

Also, I'm determined to get everything painted before I buy anything new.

so as i tell everyone who comes to my group with the same complaint...

1. dont play 1500. 3k before the game balances. These are not Apocalypse games at all. but most armies have between 7-10 units/vehicles. nids have 9-12 though
2. always play objective (maelstrom)
3. Play with more terrain (see my 40k batreps for an example)

the game has no balance at low points. Basically one bad turn and you literally have no way to recover. there is no chance for give and take or sacrificial units. Also certain armies have a distinct advantage at that points. With something like a laser destroyer at low poits it an focus on your highest value target in turn 1 and eliminate. We had one in a game a few weeks back but it had to choose and could only blow up 1 HVT before the enemy was able to maneuver out of its path and Detroit it. the enemy used a bait HVT to attract its fire.

 tenebre wrote:

 pumpinchimp wrote:
This is my army - http://hq-builder.com/shared/106308

I built it based on the models I liked rather that ones that would win games and, other than a single Piranha, it's every model I've got. I know roughly what to do to make it better (basically go Farsight Enclave and get an ethereal).

Also, I'm determined to get everything painted before I buy anything new.

so as i tell everyone who comes to my group with the same complaint...

1. dont play 1500. 3k before the game balances. These are not Apocalypse games at all. but most armies have between 7-10 units/vehicles. nids have 9-12 though
2. always play objective (maelstrom)
3. Play with more terrain (see my 40k batreps for an example)

the game has no balance at low points. Basically one bad turn and you literally have no way to recover. there is no chance for give and take or sacrificial units. Also certain armies have a distinct advantage at that points. With something like a laser destroyer at low poits it an focus on your highest value target in turn 1 and eliminate. We had one in a game a few weeks back but it had to choose and could only blow up 1 HVT before the enemy was able to maneuver out of its path and Detroit it. the enemy used a bait HVT to attract its fire.

Don't play 1500? 1500 keeps the stupid things to a minimum. No multiple SHV or GCs, typically, and it's hard to spam power units.

It's a game. You're new. Your opponent (presumably) isn't.

If you've never played chess before and you decide to join a chess club, guess what. You'll lose a lot. And you'll keep losing until you get better at it.

What makes you think 40k is so different?

 Crazyterran wrote:

 tenebre wrote:

 pumpinchimp wrote:
This is my army - http://hq-builder.com/shared/106308

I built it based on the models I liked rather that ones that would win games and, other than a single Piranha, it's every model I've got. I know roughly what to do to make it better (basically go Farsight Enclave and get an ethereal).

Also, I'm determined to get everything painted before I buy anything new.

so as i tell everyone who comes to my group with the same complaint...

1. dont play 1500. 3k before the game balances. These are not Apocalypse games at all. but most armies have between 7-10 units/vehicles. nids have 9-12 though
2. always play objective (maelstrom)
3. Play with more terrain (see my 40k batreps for an example)

the game has no balance at low points. Basically one bad turn and you literally have no way to recover. there is no chance for give and take or sacrificial units. Also certain armies have a distinct advantage at that points. With something like a laser destroyer at low poits it an focus on your highest value target in turn 1 and eliminate. We had one in a game a few weeks back but it had to choose and could only blow up 1 HVT before the enemy was able to maneuver out of its path and Detroit it. the enemy used a bait HVT to attract its fire.

Don't play 1500? 1500 keeps the stupid things to a minimum. No multiple SHV or GCs, typically, and it's hard to spam power units.

we only play 3k .. never had those problem. at 1500 there is a "best" build and you literally can not afford to take any fun units. We have the "dont be a tool" rule. If someone tries to be a jerk and make a broken list you simply slap them. At 1500 lists are either overpowered or near useless. and again so few units there is not room for tactical positioning or strategic give and take.

we play 1500 for ZM games. and it works well since you cant take bigger models anyway. But the limited LOS and objectives (we neve rplay only kill points) still force strategic positioning. I constantly hear the same complaint as what the OP said from newbies coming to our group. Thus far all of them have been very happy with the change of game.

Strange. Take the laser array (which is roughly the Legiones Astartes equivalent of your own nova-charged Riptide) and that fancy Vindicator is just a Vindicator after all. Your Fusion Crisis team should have made short work of it.

 tenebre wrote:
1. dont play 1500. 3k before the game balances. These are not Apocalypse games at all. but most armies have between 7-10 units/vehicles. nids have 9-12 though
2. always play objective (maelstrom)
3. Play with more terrain (see my 40k batreps for an example)

Heh, he's playing Tau, not Orks.

Agree with #2 and #3 of Tenebre's list.

My thoughts
-Moar Terrain. Just makes things more fun
-Maelstrom. Or other more-randomness options. Played City fight Monday night and it was a blast!

But most importantly:
-Decide competitive or not.

If you want to go competitive, obviously you'll need to build towards the netlist stuff (but not an exact copy). Not my thing, so I won't comment too much.

If not super competitive, here's my further advice.
-Moar terrain. Its like Orkz with dakka. If its ever enough, you're doing it wrong!
-Don't swap out what you love for what works better. It'll be fine.
-Multiplayer games! 2v2, FFA, 2v1, etc. Anything with more than 2 players can go crazy in some of the most fun ways!
-Develop a vendetta for Imperial Fists. They took a core world from your Sept! Burn their worlds! Salt their fields! Always ally in against them!
-Regularly switch your list around. Might need a few more options to do so though. Options you love, even if they don't synergize well.
-Play the size you like. Sometimes starting a 1k and having a terrible turn puts you on a precarious back foot. And sometimes that makes for an amazing game. There is something awesome about pulling off a win after losing half your army at the top of 1!

I enjoy the game most as a beer & pretzel game, personally. The more "perfect" my lists/strategies get, the less fun the games tend to be (for both players).

 Thud wrote:
It's a game. You're new. Your opponent (presumably) isn't.

If you've never played chess before and you decide to join a chess club, guess what. You'll lose a lot. And you'll keep losing until you get better at it.

What makes you think 40k is so different?

I'm more amused than annoyed at the extent to which I'm getting beat.

Also, I rule at Chess. I used to have a chess board where the pieces were shot glasses, we used to play 'you take a piece, you take the shot', I got soooooo drunk

 Purifier wrote:
The laser destroyer is a fantastic model. Just a heavily armoured box with a cannon on it. I love it.

But that's aesthetics. I've never played it. Don't know what it does.

one gun, ordinance 1 twin linked, s9 ap 1, if it doesn't move it can choose to be ordinance 2 twin linked or ordinance 3,
twin linked, fusion cell rule thingy (name is forgotten sorry)

And fusion cell is basically a much more forgiving gets hot.

 Crazyterran wrote:


Don't play 1500? 1500 keeps the stupid things to a minimum. No multiple SHV or GCs, typically, and it's hard to spam power units.

Points limits don't really keep stupid things to a minimum by themselves. You can have a battleforged army at 750 pts with 2 knights and at 1500 you can easily have 4 knights. At 1500 you don't even need 2 detachments to do that. Players agreeing to limit their selections in army lists or rules and restrictions enforced by a TO are the only things that prevent stupidity to any real degree.

 pumpinchimp wrote:

 Thud wrote:
It's a game. You're new. Your opponent (presumably) isn't.

If you've never played chess before and you decide to join a chess club, guess what. You'll lose a lot. And you'll keep losing until you get better at it.

What makes you think 40k is so different?

I'm more amused than annoyed at the extent to which I'm getting beat.

Also, I rule at Chess. I used to have a chess board where the pieces were shot glasses, we used to play 'you take a piece, you take the shot', I got soooooo drunk

we keep toying with playing some Drunkhammer but we cant figure out when to take the shots?
failed moral tests? then marines never get drunk! hahaha meanwhile orks get hammered! haha

 pumpinchimp wrote:

 Thud wrote:
It's a game. You're new. Your opponent (presumably) isn't.

If you've never played chess before and you decide to join a chess club, guess what. You'll lose a lot. And you'll keep losing until you get better at it.

What makes you think 40k is so different?

I'm more amused than annoyed at the extent to which I'm getting beat.

Also, I rule at Chess. I used to have a chess board where the pieces were shot glasses, we used to play 'you take a piece, you take the shot', I got soooooo drunk

You didn't start off ruling at chess though, is his point. There's a learning curve to any game.

 tenebre wrote:
we keep toying with playing some Drunkhammer but we cant figure out when to take the shots?
failed moral tests? then marines never get drunk! hahaha meanwhile orks get hammered! haha

Win a Victory Point, take a shot?

That'd be vicious when playing Deadlock though.

I would agree with many points made by tenebre.
Tau has that combination of mobility and shooty with some "shoot and scoot" so some terrain will help.

Mobility has become more critical with this edition so going and getting those objectives are important.
Maelstrom personally irritates me a bit BUT it does remove some of the sit back and destroy each other games they tend to devolve into.

With so much S10 shot you have, something should have had a clear shot on that forgeworld model.
Your tank with the solid shot alone is an "equivalent" except the "twin link" on that destroyer makes it kill pretty much whatever it points at.

Another thing to review; were you firing "appropriate" weapons at appropriate targets (high kill probability vs marginal)?
I know certain targets you really want to get rid of but to the exclusion of the rest of the army can get you in trouble.

At the 1500 point level larger models like that laser destroyer is a bit of a destabilizer (130 pts is a deal for what it does), you get a similar complaint when people field Imperial Knights at these points values.

The other missing bit of the puzzle is what else was the marine player fielding?
Did he drop-pod in on you or something to that effect?
I figure if the marines get close to your guys 12" or less you are toast.

I feel like some rules or abilities were not properly used or exploited to put up so little of a fight or all you could do was roll: 's

 pumpinchimp wrote:

 tenebre wrote:
we keep toying with playing some Drunkhammer but we cant figure out when to take the shots?
failed moral tests? then marines never get drunk! hahaha meanwhile orks get hammered! haha

Win a Victory Point, take a shot?

That'd be vicious when playing Deadlock though.

and better with d3 VPs!!!! hahahah ok this needs to happen. maybe in july when our big drinker returns

When you get batter at the game, you'll like Forgeworld

You need to play more. I lost many more games when I started playing this than won. Change tactics every game - see what did you do wrong in the previous one and try to adapt.

Use proxies. In the beginning, you'll often buy low-optimized stuff (heck, I started with Chaos and went with Thousand Sons because of the fluff...). Proxy stuff you don't have to test its rules and see if it goes well with your playstyle.

Cadre Fireblade isn't a good HQ choice. Ethereal is way better than him, and the Tau Commander is even more!

Try to give the Crisis Target Locks, so they can fire at different targets.

Stealth team isn't a good investment, but as you already have them, give the boss a Homing Beacon so your Crisis can arrive spot on (no scatter)

Try to give a Devilfish to the other Fire Warrior Group. Put an Ethereal with one of the and disembark close, selecting the Storm of Fire aura. both groups, if at 15" of an enemy, will obliterate it (unless it's a Dark Eldar formation called Dark Artisan... don't use Fire Warriors against it!)

Put at least one more Pathfinder model in each team. They'll do average 3 markerlight hits each. There are better markerlight options - Tau Commander with marker drones and Drone Controller or Tetras (FW)

The bomber isn't a good plane. Try to proxy it as the Barracuda (FW)

Instead of Hammerhead, try to use a Sky Ray.

Both FW models can be found in Imperial Armour 3 - 2nd Edition.

 Thud wrote:
If you've never played chess before and you decide to join a chess club, guess what. You'll lose a lot. And you'll keep losing until you get better at it. What makes you think 40k is so different?

Chess is a bit different where the better you remember or know classic moves it is actually difficult to lose to a newbie.
With the high amount of randomization coupled with some "rock-paper-scissors" elements to list building it is easier by far for someone new to beat a more "experienced" player.
Also anyone who stays on top of the latest "meta" in the last 6 months will have a far greater edge than an experienced player since like second edition much unlike chess.

As stated, you're new. Your list honestly isn't bad either, unless your opponents are using tourney-quality lists against you. Tell them that you're new and you're looking for a fun and flavourful game (which your list is very much about - it's a beautifully "Tau" style list!), and I'm sure your games won't end with you tabled. Generally speaking, only tourney-quality lists will table an opponent in 3 turns.

However, you said you were also tabled in 4 turns. You should still be able to avoid tabling with most armies even in 4 turns, assuming your moving around and keeping protected. Just like in chess, 40k requires thinking at least a turn ahead, possibly two turns ahead. You have to know where your opponent is going to be, how strong their attack is, and how likely you are to survive to make another move. The more turns ahead you can do this, the better you'll move. The real trap I see most new players fall into is:

#1 - They think that it's better to stay and fight rather than move to a new position.
#2 - They don't plan for the effects of terrain.
#3 - They don't yet know which units are important to kill, and which units they can sacrifice.

The strongest lists out there have some way of moving in powerful ways. 12" moves are much harder to predict that 6" moves. Drop Pods try to make any of your previous movements null. As such, always pre-measure if you can, and don't be afraid to ask what your opponent's weapon's and stats are. Your Pulse Rifles are 32" range, and after their 6" move they'll be at 26" range. Deploy with that in mind. Keep moving to both get you into better spots, advancing on objectives if possible, while leaving yourself minimally exposed. Your Crisis Suits all have the jet-move in the assault phase, so take advantage of that. Don't just put them somewhere to kill something before dying - have them come down close to cove, shoot something, then pop back out of line of sight. Make your opponent work to get to you. Sure your Hammerhead isn't invincible, but if you keep it a bit behind cover you can have it survive a lot longer. Pathfinders are great at really far range where they can light up units before you shoot to inflict penalties, or at really close range to be a massive help against assaults (due to the Supporting Fire special rule).

In other words, if you're losing by a ton with this list, you're probably doing some wrong tactics. Don't get discouraged though! You're new! But if your opponents are all bring 3-Flyrant lists, or solo-Knights, or other "this is what I would bring to a tournament"-style lists, then you're not being given a fair shake at the game as a newbie.

LIST FIXES:

•Replace Fireblade with Battlesuit commander/Buffmander (Commander w/ PENchip, CNC Node, MSSS, Drone Controller, Iridium Armor, VRT, Stimms)

•Drop the Sun Shark

•Give the Hammerhead Ion Cannon + Longstrike or replace with Sky Ray.

•Give the Broadsides HYMP. Rail Rifles are for masochists and those with no eyes.

ARMY IMPROVEMENTS:

•Put the Buffmander with the Fusion Suit team. Fish for no scatter DS trait, drop on the VLD and gib it. You have TL, you have Ignores Cover, you have Tank Hunter. You'll kill it. If he has AV14, KILL THAT INSTEAD. Tau suck at killing AV14. Fusion Suits are it for your AV14 killers. If they die before making any AV14 combat ineffective, you won't be killing the AV14 all game.

•Does the enemy have DSers? If so, give the Riptide EWO and nuke them when they come in with an overcharge shot. EWO and stimms is very good.

•Failguns are bad. Overcharge is better than Submunition, anyway, and you have Fusion Suitd which do tanks better than solid shot.

Cadre Fireblade+Ethereal is a deadly combination in a 12 man Firewarriror squad
Combine that Volley Fire and Storm of Fire and you have a super deadly combination

 Talizvar wrote:

The other missing bit of the puzzle is what else was the marine player fielding?
Did he drop-pod in on you or something to that effect?
I figure if the marines get close to your guys 12" or less you are toast.

From memory -

Game 1 - He had 2 Imperial Fists Contemptor Dreadnoughts, a load of centurions with lascannons and that awful forgeworld tank, there was something else that gave me a headache but I can't remember what it was. I'd tailored my list slightly dropping the velocity trackers from the broadsides and gave the firewarriors in the devilfish EMP grenades (with the intention of suicide assaulting his dreadnoughts). Everything worked against me though, the terrain and his deployment stopped me getting my pathfinders into decent positions, he got turn one and immobilised my devilfish and took out my broadsides immediately. My turn 1 was a disaster, just about everything missed (apart from a stealth suit with a Fusion Blaster, that's were I got my one wound off a centurion). He then shredded my EMP firewarriors (who were trying to run around a some ruins) with his contemptor dreadnoughts, Riptide went down to barrage of las fire and hammerhead got taken out turn 2 as well. Crisis suits deep striked and got cut to ribbons by interceptor fire. At the end of turn 3 in an act of bloody minded stubbornness, I charged a dreadnought with the 2 gun drones from the devilfish (which has been shot again and had weapon destroyed so was completely useless). It was an absolute bloodbath.

Game 2 - He dropped his dreadnoughts (but kept THAT tank), switched the anti armour centurions for close combat centurions and brought our a couple of fliers (Storm Talons I think). I moved all the terrain around to give us a fresh table and put my velocity trackers back on the broadsides and dropped the EMP grenades. I won the choose sides roll so took the highground. Opponent left a gapping hole in his deployment that I managed to cram my pathfinders into. Everything started well, I took out both his troop transports, took 2HP off his evil tank and killed a few marines. His first turn though, it started again, immediately killed my broadsides (goodbye to skyfire!). Turn 2 went ok but the tell tale signs of a imminent fail were there, my crisis suits did well when they arrived killing a whole unit of centurions but I failed to kill any more marines and once his fliers came in and he dropped a load of terminators beside my Riptide my line fell apart. Turned into a cat and mouse game.

I absolutely LOVE the model but I've come to accept that the bomber is a unless piece of crap.

You are using a lot of bad units, and the good ones have wrong gear. So even if the marine army is tame, and doesn't use combos you will always have problems. You should check some other people tau armies. I am no tau player, but I know that no one should be using a single tank for example. Your suits could be troops and you should have at least 2 riptides. I don't know, if tau have any battle brothers anymore, I know they lost eldar, but if they can battle brother marines you can take centurions of your own with tigurius or that FW psykers everyone else plays .

 pumpinchimp wrote:

Think I need new dice!

Buying new dice ain't much good when success in the game revolves around buying new models.

Hey I feel you man, let me tell you a story though. I've been playing since 5th edition, not so long but a good couple years. When I started I had a pretty weak Marines army, I played mostly 2v2 games and relied on my partner to provide any chance of winning since I new nothing about the rules.

When i started playing people on my own, I'll be honest with you I don't think I won a game for two years. Maybe a couple here and there, but I never stood a chance against anyone I played.

It wasn't until I came back to the hobby a few years later with a fairly solid grasp of the rules and the list building meta that I began to have an even foot with people. Now I actually win or tie a pretty good amount of my games, and even do decently at my local tournaments, but to be honest unless you build a point and click netlist you will guaranteed lose 80% of your games for a good year after starting, I know I sure did.

It doesn't say anything about you as a strategic thinker or anything, it's just a complicated game that is easily leveraged by an experienced opponent, no matter what the lists are.

EDIT: Also, try and learn from other players deployment, movement and target priority. The game is often decided by one bad mistake in the deployment phase/first turn of movement. Learning how to affect where your opponent puts his models, or how I nullify his damage through proper deployment is huge, as well as learning how to block or bottleneck him. These are all things that you just gradually learn through losing a lot of games.

 Verviedi wrote:
LIST FIXES:

•Replace Fireblade with Battlesuit commander/Buffmander (Commander w/ PENchip, CNC Node, MSSS, Drone Controller, Iridium Armor, VRT, Stimms)

•Drop the Sun Shark

•Give the Hammerhead Ion Cannon + Longstrike or replace with Sky Ray.

•Give the Broadsides HYMP. Rail Rifles are for masochists and those with no eyes.

ARMY IMPROVEMENTS:

•Put the Buffmander with the Fusion Suit team. Fish for no scatter DS trait, drop on the VLD and gib it. You have TL, you have Ignores Cover, you have Tank Hunter. You'll kill it. If he has AV14, KILL THAT INSTEAD. Tau suck at killing AV14. Fusion Suits are it for your AV14 killers. If they die before making any AV14 combat ineffective, you won't be killing the AV14 all game.

•Does the enemy have DSers? If so, give the Riptide EWO and nuke them when they come in with an overcharge shot. EWO and stimms is very good.

•Failguns are bad. Overcharge is better than Submunition, anyway, and you have Fusion Suitd which do tanks better than solid shot.

Basically do what he says. And 1500 pts is good. Play with at least 8 pieces of terrain. deploy as far back as you can so that you can shoot them on first turn and they can't shoot you. Always rememver Jump shoot jump with suits that can do it.

For pure shooting tau, try list below - Put the ethereal in the devilfish, he can cast his abilities from within to the firewarriors 12" from the devilfish hull. The DFish is more survivable with the Disruption Pod and won't worry about terrain with sensor spines and now has 30" range that ignore cover and line of sight, 4 twin linked str5 ap5 shots.
Have the commander team with the Crisis suit teams. 5 drones(soak up wounds) / 10shots at 18" bs with ignore cover and pinning. 12 Str 7 ap4 twinlinked , 36" range that ignore cover and line of sight shots from the CS team. Get commander to punch guys and vehicles at str 10 ap1 for lulz. Remember the PEN chip gives tank hunters or Monster hunters to that unit so again you get some wounds/armor rerolls.

Keep pathfinders back and in deep cover. They have 36" range so you should be getting at least 2 targets with 2/3 market lights.

If possible, always take the Firebase Support Cadre formation. You get Tank hunters on everyone in the formation and Bane of Angels:
Bane of Angels: All units in this formation have the Preferred Enemy (Space Marines) special rule. However, all enemy Space Marine units have the Hatred (Tau Firebase Support Cadre) special rule. The category ‘Space Marines’ comprises all units taken from the following codexes: Space Marines, Blood Angels, Dark Angels, Grey Knights and Space Wolves. (Tau Firebase Support Cadre Dataslate)

6 broadsides always have HYMP so each 3 suit team fires 12 12 Str 7 ap4 36" twinlinked and 12 30" range that ignore cover and line of sight, 4 twin linked str5 ap5 shots. Metric f*ckton of shots. with tank hunters. That should destroy most vehicles. AV14 is really only handled by the Riptide Nova charging shots but he gets ordinance and tank hunters so lots of rerolls.

Of course you could always ignore the ethereal and devilfish combo and lose some FW and probably get yourself another crisis team but you'll lose volume of fire for perhaps a fusion blaster team. Also no need for velocity trackers, 6 broadsides with missiles is enough to take down fliers.

Tau Empire: Codex (2013) (Combined Arms Detachment) (884pts)
HQ (292pts)
Commander (242pts)
Command and Control Node (15pts), Drone Controller (8pts), 2x Gun Drone (24pts), Multi-spectrum Sensor Suite (20pts), Onager Gauntlet (5pts), Puretide Engram Neurochip (15pts), Shield Generator (25pts), Stimulant Injector (15pts), Vectored Retro-Thrusters (5pts), XV8-02 Crisis 'Iridium' Battlesuit (25pts)
Independent Character, Supporting Fire, Very Bulky

Ethereal (50pts)
Failure is Not An Option, Independent Character, Invocation of the Elements, Stubborn

Elites (192pts)
XV8 Crisis Team (192pts)
3x Gun Drone (36pts)
3x Crisis Shas'ui (52pts) - 2x Missile Pod (30pts)

Troops (290pts)
Fire Warrior Team (90pts)
10x Fire Warrior Shas'la with Pulse Rifle (90pts) Supporting Fire
Fire Warrior Team (200pts)
10x Fire Warrior Shas'la with Pulse Rifle (90pts) Supporting Fire
Devilfish (110pts)
Disruption Pod (15pts), Sensor Spines (5pts), Twin-linked Smart Missile System (10pts) Transport Capacity (Devilfish)

Fast Attack (110pts)
Pathfinder Team (55pts)
5x Pathfinder Shas'la (55pts) Scouts, Supporting Fire
Pathfinder Team (55pts)
5x Pathfinder Shas'la (55pts) Scouts, Supporting Fire

Tau Empire: Codex (2013) (Formation Detachment) (615pts)
Formation (615pts)
Firebase Support Cadre (615pts) Bane of Angels, Formation Restrictions (Firebase Support Cadre), Tank Hunter

XV104 Riptide (225pts)
Early Warning Override (5pts), Ion Accelerator (5pts), Stimulant Injector (35pts), Twin-linked Fusion Blaster, Nova Reactor, Supporting Fire

XV88 Broadside Team (195pts)
3x Broadside Shas'ui (65pts) Twin-linked High-Yield Missile Pod, Twin-linked Smart Missile System, Extremely Bulky, Supporting Fire

XV88 Broadside Team (195pts)
3x Broadside Shas'ui (65pts) Twin-linked High-Yield Missile Pod, Twin-linked Smart Missile System, Extremely Bulky, Supporting Fire

Did you at least have fun in any of the games? My first few games around 4th, I lost in a landslide against a good friend who was going easy on me! We had a great time though, and he helped me figure out what I'd done wrong. He advised me on what worked for me and why, which units might work better and some other helpful advice. I soon improved quite a lot.

Now though, having not played since near the end of 5th, I'd probably be trounced again by most anyone. Still, it wouldn't significantly effect how much fun I had playing.

Keep your chin up, it'll get better. Remember, you have one of the higher-tier armies there. If I played you with my Chaos, you'd almost certainly win!