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So I'm thinking of putting together a Tau force, but have no clue what a list usually has to make it function. I've never read any tau fiction, and only a little bit of fiction where the Tau were the enemy. I like the battleships look wise, and mostly everything they have.

My first 500 points was 20 fire warriors, 2 groups of 5 Pathfinders and a very powerful commander.

A commander, a couple of small firewarrior squads, half a dozen crisis suits, a Riptide and 3 broadsides should give you a very solid base to work with that you should be able to find a home for in almost any lists you make.

Stay away from cadre fireblades, vespid, pathfinders, either of the fliers and probably steer clear of hammerheads too.

I would say etherials are a trap to, but some people swear by them. Stealth suits are generally sub par, but are required for the very strong optimised stealth cadre, so they will not be too bad long term.

Crisis suits should always have 2 of the same gun, and those 2 guns should be missile pods, fusion blasters, plasma rifles or cyclic ion blasters. All the suits in the same squad should all have the same weapons, no mix and matching!

Riptide gets the ion accelerator, no exceptions. Broadsides get high yield missiles and smart missiles, again, no exceptions. Both should also be given early warning override 95% of the time, depending on who you are playing.

You will need at least 2 sources of marker lights. A skyray is an excellent source of 1, a drone squad with a commander or crisis is another good source. Drones on their own are passable but not great, pathfinders are too squishy for the points for my liking, but some people love them.

The new Ghostkeel and Stormsurge are both great, but will perhaps struggle to find a place in lower point games if you're just starting as one requires being a bit close while the other puts a lot of eggs in one basket.

Make sure you have enough marker lights as the army can get hampered without those. Things that use blast weapons can also work around it a bit.

A good core for a force is a Buffmander ( CCN, MSS, Iridium, PEN, thrusters, controller & stimulant ) that you put into a squad of XV8's which have 2 Missile Pods and Target locks. Give the squad 6 Marker Drones.

Now you can tank the shots directed at the squad with the Commander ( and LOS a few to the suits ) and the Marker Drones are shooting BS5 lights, and the suits can shoot at another target with their locks. Skyrays and Forgeworld Tetras are another good source of markerlights.

Next, you'll probably want 2 Rip Tides, a solid allround unit. You can then expand your force from there.

If it is a suit it is good




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and the bigger the better.


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Also find a way to spam marker lights.

There you have it tau army build tactics in 3 lines

OP your really going to need to ask yourself "what's my favorite tau models" because otherwise your going to get hit with 1000 suggestions because like Eldar, Tau have so many options now that you can mix and match a bunch of different concepts together.

Instead of throwing out suggestions at whim.. Here is my "core" of pretty much every single list I run. And for me I like the models and it works.

Farsight Enclaves 99% of the time =)
Commander with Fusion blades relic
2x3 Crisis Teams, dual burst cannons
x3 Crisis Team, dual plasma rifle
Riptide, Ion Cannon, fusion blasters

I can fit this in a CAD, I can stick it in a Retaliation Cadre, I can make it work in that other crisis formation in the Montka book. Very flexible.

Cheers!

I personally don't play as Tau, but I can tell you that those guys who jump-shoot-jump are rage inducing. Maybe some of them? (I don't know how useful compared to the rest of the codex they are, but they are sure annoying - which is a value all of it's own)

 Wulfmar wrote:
I personally don't play as Tau, but I can tell you that those guys who jump-shoot-jump are rage inducing. Maybe some of them? (I don't know how useful compared to the rest of the codex they are, but they are sure annoying - which is a value all of it's own)

Crisis Suits. And they are great units. They can be equipped for any situation, and even in fluff are used for hit and run tactics (not literally game "hit and run", but like guerilla warfare).

I like the aesthetics of virtually the entire line. Not a huge fan of ethereals but doesn't sound like I need them. How are the vehicles?

The vehicles are fine but not great, except for the Skyray which is amazing, oh and Piranhas if you go with that one formation. The biggest issue the Skyray has is that it doesn't fit into any of the contingents, so it's harder to work into a list, but if you're going with a basic CAD, which is a reasonable option, it's pretty good for what it does.

As for the Hammer head, the real problem is you're sinking a lot of points into a single shot, while the Skyray is generally better for less points. That's not to say the Hammer Head is unplayable, it's just mediocre. The same goes for the two fliers, they're decent but don't do anything special for what they cost, which means you'll probably just want to spend your points on better options.

That being said, the only thing you should really avoid are the Vespids, they're just over costed and confused, which is a shame since I really like their concept.

I like the look of the vespid, to bad they suck.

Yea, me too, and it's sad that they suck to the extent that they do :/. They just need to rework them into either being close combat guys or more shooty, right now you're paying a premium for shooting and close combat, while both are sub par... Initiative 6, but 1 attack, AP 3 but S5 and short range... Yay :/.

Same with the Krootox, which is another model I'd like.

Oh well, at least almost all of our other stuff is really good if you want to make it good.

Krootox are cool looking also. At least there's still plenty of cool looking stuff left over. I like the idea of not needing a swarm of low points models to be affective. Kinda sucks that 7th edition is so crappy to vehicles though.

Honestly, I have been having great luck with a retaliation cadre and a ranged support cadre together. well equipped at 1500 points.

If you want to start a force, and run a hunter contingent, start building units from the hunter cadre as mentioned in a previous post.

Broadsides are the true staple in my local meta of rage inducing firepower. a squad of 3 is 12 dice per weapon, so 24 dice all twin-linked, with amazing weapon systems. vehicles were covered above, however the vehicle formation is pretty great at popping those land raiders in larger games.

Figure out which play style you would like and you can easily work from there. I have enjoyed the auto deep strike from the retaliation cadre, which has wrecked many GC and MC spam lists, or at least held them at bay.

Op If you like the whole line i strongly suggest you build using the hunter contingent as mentioned earlier. The Hunter Continget utilizes many different model choices while giving them nice bonuses. You can take different battlesuits and troops with great variety and still build a very strong and fun list.

Some of the stronger options you should definitely consider including (besides anything else you might like):

Crisis Commander
XV8 Crisis
Riptides (Formations: Riptide Wing)
GhostKeels (Formations: Optimized Stealth Cadre or Ghostkeel Wing)
Stormsurges (D-strenght shooting)
The Mont'ka Drone Network Formation For markerlights

x078 liking the looks of those units. hoping to pick some of those up.

I'm going to play devil's advocate against the idea that models should always be equipped with multiples of the same weapon, and units likewise.

This is an attempt to optimize the unit's effectiveness against a particular enemy. The downside of this is naturally that it relies upon that preferred enemy being available.

On the other hand, if you mix weapons, you will have more of a variety of targets that you can threaten.

In addition, I ask you to consider this. Against the "standard" 40K troop -- MEQ -- plasma rifles, burst cannons, fusion blasters, and cyclic ion blasters all perform more or less the same in the 12"-18" range band (with plasma being superior from 1"-12" and 18"-24"). So you can swap one for the other with not much of any reduction of effectiveness against MEQ as long as you stay in this range band, while increasing your ability to threaten other sorts of targets at the same time.

(Plasma and fusion both do 0.415 wounds, the cyclic ion blaster does 0.41 wounds, and the burst cannon does 0.44 wounds, statistically, assuming BS3.)

Alcibiades wrote:
I'm going to play devil's advocate against the idea that models should always be equipped with multiples of the same weapon, and units likewise.

This is an attempt to optimize the unit's effectiveness against a particular enemy. The downside of this is naturally that it relies upon that preferred enemy being available.

On the other hand, if you mix weapons, you will have more of a variety of targets that you can threaten.

In addition, I ask you to consider this. Against the "standard" 40K troop -- MEQ -- plasma rifles, burst cannons, fusion blasters, and cyclic ion blasters all perform more or less the same in the 12"-18" range band (with plasma being superior from 1"-12" and 18"-24"). So you can swap one for the other with not much of any reduction of effectiveness against MEQ as long as you stay in this range band, while increasing your ability to threaten other sorts of targets at the same time.

(Plasma and fusion both do 0.415 wounds, the cyclic ion blaster does 0.41 wounds, and the burst cannon does 0.44 wounds, statistically, assuming BS3.)

Your certainly not wrong. Some weapons you can more or less combine. I would suggest not doing a burst cannon + something else though. One thing you should try and do is at least keep the str of the weapon similar. For example.. don't run a flamer and a fusion gun. These rolls are completely opposite and thus you won't be as good against high AV, and you won't be as good against infantry. all the s6 and s7 matching tho is fine, the CIB adds some ROF to the PR and can still both threaten AV targets similarly.


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I find though, that your better off running a single suit that is designed for one task if you want to mix things up.

Not only does it saturate targets, but that one suit does his job extremely well... a suit with dual fusion you might send in to crack a landraider knowing he won't survive but he did his job. Same with a single dual air burst or flamer suit against a green tide =P

 Grizzyzz wrote:

Your certainly not wrong. Some weapons you can more or less combine. I would suggest not doing a burst cannon + something else though. One thing you should try and do is at least keep the str of the weapon similar. For example.. don't run a flamer and a fusion gun. These rolls are completely opposite and thus you won't be as good against high AV, and you won't be as good against infantry. all the s6 and s7 matching tho is fine, the CIB adds some ROF to the PR and can still both threaten AV targets similarly.


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I find though, that your better off running a single suit that is designed for one task if you want to mix things up.

Not only does it saturate targets, but that one suit does his job extremely well... a suit with dual fusion you might send in to crack a landraider knowing he won't survive but he did his job. Same with a single dual air burst or flamer suit against a green tide =P

As I was doing the math the idea popped into my head that a burst cannon + a fusion blaster, counterintuitive as it might sound, might actually work out reasonably well. It has acceptable 18" firepower against all forms of infantry, is a terror to light vehicles, and can threaten anything up to a land raider if it has to.

The issue with today's game mechanics is that the more dice you throw at a problem, the higher your rate of success. Number of shots, re-rolls, better accuracy, longer range each add up to more dice generating more hits which become more wounds. When you twin-link, you add half again the dice (but are capped at your original rate of fire). When double up, you double the dice, double the rate of fire.

The point of running two of the same weapons versus two different weapons is for a single model to improve it's chances of wounding. Improving a single model's ability to wound over a larger threat range at the cost of number of wounds generated is actually not as good as it sounds, because the number of potential wounds is still low. You are better off taking two Fusion Blasters and two Gun Drones than taking a FB and a Burst Cannon, for example.

This logic change in unts of more than one model. The more models you have, the more dice you have, more wounds you can generate. In such units, having diversified weapons is a smart idea, as losing a model to attrition does not remove an entire weapon choice. 6 suits with a FB and a BC each are more resiliant and killy than all 6 sporting just FBs or BCs, due to overkill and lack of options. Yet, even in this case, 12 CiBs are still better than 6 FBs+6 BCs, again due to rate of fire and the inherent flexibility from two shooting profiles.

This is why weapon load-outs are both mathematical and to taste, because what you take is more effective based on your intentions and play style. And of course, all of this was covered ages ago in tactica articles dealing with how to equip your solo models vesus multiple model units.

SJ

 Drasius wrote:
A commander, a couple of small firewarrior squads, half a dozen crisis suits, a Riptide and 3 broadsides should give you a very solid base to work with that you should be able to find a home for in almost any lists you make.

Stay away from cadre fireblades, vespid, pathfinders, either of the fliers and probably steer clear of hammerheads too.

I would say etherials are a trap to, but some people swear by them. Stealth suits are generally sub par, but are required for the very strong optimised stealth cadre, so they will not be too bad long term.

Crisis suits should always have 2 of the same gun, and those 2 guns should be missile pods, fusion blasters, plasma rifles or cyclic ion blasters. All the suits in the same squad should all have the same weapons, no mix and matching!

Riptide gets the ion accelerator, no exceptions. Broadsides get high yield missiles and smart missiles, again, no exceptions. Both should also be given early warning override 95% of the time, depending on who you are playing.

You will need at least 2 sources of marker lights. A skyray is an excellent source of 1, a drone squad with a commander or crisis is another good source. Drones on their own are passable but not great, pathfinders are too squishy for the points for my liking, but some people love them.

The new Ghostkeel and Stormsurge are both great, but will perhaps struggle to find a place in lower point games if you're just starting as one requires being a bit close while the other puts a lot of eggs in one basket.

I mostly agree with this, but I think the Cadre Fireblades and Ethereals are great ways to buff up a Fire Warrior squad. Fireblades are wonderful to have on a defense line (14 extra shots S5 shots is nothing to sneeze at, plus the extra LD is pretty nice), and you can get a staggering amount of extra firepower from a single Ethereal. I usually run one with two squads of Fire Warriors (one 12-man, one 11-man with the Ethereal), each in a Devilfish, and keep them together as much as I can. It's an extra 23 shots on the turn they get out, and usually a few extra carbine shots from the Drones as well. If you can take a Hunter Detachment, it's even better since you can give them all +1 BS, and even if you have multiple targets, each unit contains the requisite three units to get the bonus (1 Devilfish, the Fire Warrior Team, and a Drone squad).

Edit: Also, I've had a lot of success with a Commander, a handful of Marker Drones, and a drone controller. It's a great way to fill out the requisite auxiliary slot for the Hunter Detachment as well, since some of the auxiliaries are a little heavy on points.

 Drasius wrote:
A commander, a couple of small firewarrior squads, half a dozen crisis suits, a Riptide and 3 broadsides should give you a very solid base to work with that you should be able to find a home for in almost any lists you make.

Stay away from cadre fireblades, vespid, pathfinders, either of the fliers and probably steer clear of hammerheads too.

I would say etherials are a trap to, but some people swear by them. Stealth suits are generally sub par, but are required for the very strong optimised stealth cadre, so they will not be too bad long term.

Crisis suits should always have 2 of the same gun, and those 2 guns should be missile pods, fusion blasters, plasma rifles or cyclic ion blasters. All the suits in the same squad should all have the same weapons, no mix and matching!

Riptide gets the ion accelerator, no exceptions. Broadsides get high yield missiles and smart missiles, again, no exceptions. Both should also be given early warning override 95% of the time, depending on who you are playing.

You will need at least 2 sources of marker lights. A skyray is an excellent source of 1, a drone squad with a commander or crisis is another good source. Drones on their own are passable but not great, pathfinders are too squishy for the points for my liking, but some people love them.

The new Ghostkeel and Stormsurge are both great, but will perhaps struggle to find a place in lower point games if you're just starting as one requires being a bit close while the other puts a lot of eggs in one basket.

A Burstide (Heavy Burst Cannon) is pretty good in a Riptide Wing or with the Earth Caste Pilot Array (given if an FAQ gives them back to non-Ovessa Riptides). "No exceptions" is not the case here.

When I started Tau I was like "BUY ALL THE BATTLESUITS"

But since this was in 4th edition, I soon realized I actually needed a troop choice. So I had to get some fire warriors.

I would still totally BUY ALL THE BATTLESUITS though.

You can still BUY ALL THE BATTLESUITS. Dealing buckets of wounds tends to make ObSec obsolete.

SJ