Starting Tau And/Or Astra Militarum What to Buy?

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**Lunar Centurion**

Hi! I've wanted to start both of these for a while now, and now that Christmas is coming up, I'm finally going to make the plunge. I already own some Blood Angels (30k and 40k), and also a Chimera I got as a present. What do you guys recommend starting with? For the Tau I was thinking:

Codex: Tau Empire
Coldstar Suit
Crisis Battlesuit Team
2x Fire Warriors

For the Guard:
Codex: Astra Militarum
3x Scions (For a CCS and a vet squad)
Cadian Defense Force
Primaris Psyker (Or a suitable conversion)

How are these for first purchases? I think they take me to 750 in each army, and make a somewhat decent list. C+C Greatly appreciated.

**drunken0elf**

I don't see why you would go for scieons for your ccs since you get 1 from the cadian defense force.

And shock troops can easily be converted into vet squads. Buy plasma gun right arm and left arm from bits site and you can easily make a vet squad full of plasma or melta guns for less then 10$.

**Lunar Centurion**

I need a CCS and a PCS. The CCS would have carapace, and I like the Scion command squad better.

**morganfreeman**

Carapace is one of those upgrades that isn't terribly WYSIWYG due to how gakky it can be to model.

To highlight this point, look at the official Creed and Kell models. Both of them have carapace armor on the profile, but respectively Creed is wearing less (of the exact same) armor as your standard guardsmen due to no shoulder pads, whilst Kel only has gauntlets and kneepads over the standard guardsmen.

You could use Scions, but you'd honestly run into way more people getting confused / raising an eyebrow at your how your scion models are actually 'standard' guard vets, compared to literally 0 complaining that you didn't model carapace on some regular guardsmen.

**Lunar Centurion**

I'd probably replace the Scion heads with normal Cadian ones, and possibly remove the backpacks too, so they'd look less like Scions

**Captain Joystick**

While it's probably a bit better in lower point games, the Coldstar is still a sub-optimal crisis commander loadout with the super awesome ability to accidentally kill itself.

Though it's the same kit, I would recommend instead you build a regular crisis commander that gels well with the crisis squad, depending on what you want them to do.

**Vector Strike**

With Tau, you need some kind of markerlight source. Marker Drones, Pathfinders and Sky Rays are the most common options. If you want to go CAD, Tetras are a good option.

**Lunar Centurion**

So for AM I'm set if I pick that, but for the Tau how's this:

Codex: Tau Empire
Crisis Commander
Crisis Team
2x Fire Warriors
Pathfinders
Broadside

**Captain Joystick**

I'm not a big fan of pathfinders in general, and tend to hear towards a certain crisis suit loadout that serves as the markerlight distributor.

Here's a quick spitball based on the units you mentioned above.

Crisis commander
-2x missile pods
-target lock
-drone controller

Crisis suits
-shas'vre
--command and control node
--multi-spectrum sensor suite
--puretide nanochip
-shas'ui x2
--2x missile pods
--target locks

Fire warrior strikers x2
-10 units each, pulse rifles.

Broadsides x2
Smart missiles
High-yield missile pod
Early warning override

Should come up to around 750 points in a CAD.

**DirtyDeeds**

After you get that core down for tau, start looking into the monstrous creatures. Riptides, Ghostkeels, and Stormsurges are great hammer for any Tau list.

**oldzoggy**

go for something unusual and build a Rough rider + vespid army supported a few fun (artillery) tanks. Sure it isn't the most compatible but it is fun to play less static / cliche then the static gun line.

Automatically Appended Next Post:
You might want to look at the new IG & Tau formations before you start your army, if you want to field something that is more effective. Since they give huge buffs and some allow you avoid paying the useless unit tax.