Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I have a 600 hundred point battle coming up and I was wondering which of my lists I should use. I will be facing off against a Chaos Space Marine Army that are using the mark of Khorne.
If either of my lists aren't very good please tell me and produce me one that's better based off the Tau stuff I have, which is :
1 x Hammerhead Gunship, 1 x Pirahna, 1 x Devilfish, 1 x Ethereal, 2 x DS8 Tactical Support Turrets, 22 x Fire Warriors, 10 x Pathfinders + the three special drones that they come with, 3 x Crisis Suits (Feel free to say what wargear I should give them), 3 x Stealth Suits

Now that I've said what I own, let's get to the two army lists I have come up with:

Option 1 - 601 pts: Ethereal (Blacksun Filter, Homing Beacon, Hover Drone, Recon Armour and Honour Blade), 3 x XV8 Crisis Suits (3 x Marker Drones, 3 x Gun Drones, Crisi Shas'vre with Multi-Spectrum Sensor Suite, Plasma Rifle and Stimulant Injector; One Crisis Shas'ui has two Plasma rifles and a Stimulant Injector; Last Crisis Shas'ui has a Target Lock and two Fusion blasters), 1 x Fire Warrior Strike Team (1 x Shas'ui, 11 x Fire Warriors 1 x DS8 Tactical Support Turret with a Missile Pod, 2 x Marker Drones), 1 x Pirahna (Fusion Blaster, Decoy Launchers, Disruption Pod, Sensor Spines).

Option 2 - 600 pts: Ethereal (Blacksun Filter, Homing Beacon, Hover Drone, Recon Armour and Honour Blade), 1 x Fire Warrior Strike Team (1 x Shas'ui, 9 x Fire Warriors, 1 x Devilfish - (2 x Seeker Missiles. 2 Gun Drones, Blacksun Filter, Decoy Launchers, Sensor Spines), Bonding Knife Ritual), 1 x Fire Warrior Strike Team (1 x Fire Warrior Shas'ui, 10 x Fire Warriors, Bonding Knife Ritual), 1 x Hammerhead Gunship (Railgun, Automated Repair System, Blacksun Filter, Decoy Launchers, Sensor Spines).

Thank you for reading and thank you for any and all advice given

Personally, I would say neither, as listed. If you're married to one idea or the other, I'd vote for the former.

But, if it were me doing this, here's what I'd go with:

HQ: Ethereal (no upgrades)
Troops: 2 teams of 5 Fire Warriors (DS8 turret w/missiles, pulse rifles), 2 teams of 6 Fire Warriors (pulse rifles)
Fast Attack: 2 teams of 5 Pathfinders (naked)
Elites: 2x single XV8 Crisis Shas'ui (2x plasma rifles, stimulant injector), 1x single XV8 Crisis Shas'ui (2x missile pod, drone controller, 2 marker drones)

At 600 points, that should provide plenty of firepower, and survivability should come through numbers, skillful use of cover, skillful use of the Crisis suits' assault moves, and killing the enemy before they can strike. Chaos Marines are expensive, so he won't have all that many units. Your missile pods, plasma rifles and even pulse rifles/carbines will suffice for cracking Rhinos. If you see any Predators, Vindicators, Forgefiends, etc get behind or beside them and unload. Hopefully you won't see a Land Raider - if you do, play the mission, not the opponent. Ordinarily I'd take some fusion blasters to hedge against that possibility, but I don't think you can get enough redundancy in this list to make it work, so I'm betting on not seeing a 250-point unit in a 600-point game. If you're really worried, strip the two six-man Fire Warrior squads down to 5, give them carbines and EMP grenades.

I'm betting you won't see a Heldrake. If you do, do your level best to get some markerlights on it, then unload with missiles.

You'll note that I didn't spring for a lot of shinies - the old maxim is "boys before toys", and that even holds true for Tau. It's especially true for the Ethereal. The Hover Drone is nearly worthless, and actively counterproductive if you're putting him in a 'fish (and if you bring one you should, but it's too many points for too little capability at this level). Recon armor won't save him from anything of note: cover is an Ethereal's best friend, as is being in a squad. In this case, probably the Fire Warriors with DS8 pods. The Honour Blade is nothing but a point sink. Ethereals, like all Tau, are sad in close combat. He'll likely die before he can even swing, and it's not that impressive even if you get to use it. Keep him cheap and spend more on his retinue.

A larger number of smaller squads usually works out better than a few big blobs - it forces an opponent to divide his fire or assaulting, and lets you be in more places at once. The catch here is that your Fire Warriors will be footslogging, so you'll be relying on your Crisis Suits to range ahead and neutralize the most pressing threats.