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So, I wanna get better at using Tau, Without going for the over the top cheesy stuff or being overly competetive. I just play for fun and I dont mind loosing, but my friends are asking me to play better so they get a bigger challange.. So, I want to build a quick and mobile Tau army. So, Does anyone have any ideas for army building and tactics for a fast and mobile Tau army, That dosent rely overly on the cheese? I only bring my Stormsurge if my friends ask for it and also bring a super heavy to face it. And I dont like bringing more then 1 Riptide either..

I think if you want fast and Mobile you would want to load up with as many Crisis Suits as possible. Maybe keep a small group of Broadsides in the back.

Crisis would be the only ting I could think of that could get in and do some damage with a chance of surviving. This also lest you Jump Shoot Jump and keep the enemy on their toes.

I am slowly working on a bit of the same but using Shas'O R'alai as HQ.

How about building a list around breachers in devilfish? Race up to the enemy, disembark then blast them in the face with St6 Ap3 small arms at point blank range. Give the fish the overwatch gizmo and support with marker drones and crisis suits with their overwatch buffing gizmo and then dare them to charge your breachers standing inches away. It's crazy but it just might work.

Thats an intresting idea.. I do have 1 Breacher Team thats partly assembled.. (Got 7 breachers out of 10 assembled, Plus the drone that gives them a 5+ invul.. I think it is.. Been a while since I looked at them..)

3 units of breachers in devilfish, Plus 2 units of 20 Kroot that outflanks.. And then 3 units of 3 Crisis Suits.. Or maybe run dual CAD for more suits and kroot.. Then soem Piranhas.. I dont like Marker Drones because they need a Buffmander to not suck and that gets real expensive real fast.. So 2-3 units of Pathfinders..

What is the exact 'cheesy' thing you're looking to avoid here?

Around 35% of the Tau's arsenal is condemned as cheesy in some corner or a other, and those tools are the difference between the Tau being a shooting exclusive army that isn't good at shooting and the scourge of casual 40k.

My friend uses mobile tau tactics, mostly centering around breachers in devilfish

He uses a tau cad with Shadowsun as HQ, footslogging marker light pathfinders, breachers in devilfish and piranha with melta. Then he adds a burst cannon OSC and adds Shadowsun to one of the stealth suit teams.

It's a very excellent list that I don't think anyone has ever not enjoyed playing against.

Merellin wrote:
Thats an intresting idea.. I do have 1 Breacher Team thats partly assembled.. (Got 7 breachers out of 10 assembled, Plus the drone that gives them a 5+ invul.. I think it is.. Been a while since I looked at them..)

3 units of breachers in devilfish, Plus 2 units of 20 Kroot that outflanks.. And then 3 units of 3 Crisis Suits.. Or maybe run dual CAD for more suits and kroot.. Then soem Piranhas.. I dont like Marker Drones because they need a Buffmander to not suck and that gets real expensive real fast.. So 2-3 units of Pathfinders..

Marker drones work better than pathfinders for buffing breacher's overwatch even without a buffmander. They are faster and tougher and their crap BS doesn't stink so bad compared with a pathfinder when their markerlights are being snap-shoted anyway. If you use a hunter contigent the marker drones can get a BS buff sometimes through coordinated firepower depending on what else you brought. Pathfinders need a fish to keep up with the breachers which adds to their cost. The coordinated firepower rule for a huntercontigent also reduces the need for markerlights for regular shooting.

Leavr the riptides and stormsurges out and tau basically fine. Unkillable models ruin everything.

I'm playing a game tomorrow. I'm taking some good stuff but I'm also bringning 30 fire warriors a long strike hammerhead an etheral and a fireblade. This is how you tone down a list - take units that people say are garbage.

Build of a retaliation cadre and play dawn blade contingent. Take a drone net (don't fill it all with marker drones. Your taking this so you can drone up your suits) run FSE for a close combat commander with fusion blades and a gauntlet, iridium, hit/run, 2 Flamers and your choice of invuln or fnp depending on the enemy. 1 riptide won't be op or cansur, and you'll want at least 1 large blast. Make your suits however you want, but I'd suggest drones for wounds. This army isn't too cheese, gives your opponent all of turn 1 and maybe two to nab objectives and requires a good bit of finess to play.

This list should come out to about 1500 points if you mess around with upgrades. The close combat commander ain't cheese, though be afraid of high int low ap attacks, and 1 tide isn't cheese. Neither are the crisis suits.

You could probably bring one Riptide, or a Ghostkeel if you think a Riptide is a bit too much.

Devilfish Breachers and Crisis Suits are good for mobile Tau. Pirahnas work well too.

I had fun with a list that included

Ethereal
2 Squads of breachers in devilfish
2 squads of fire warriros
2 squads of 3 crisis suits with plasma rifles
2 squads of 4 pathfinders with Rail rifles
1 squad of 6 sniper drones and 2 marksmen
1 skyray
+
the formation that has 3 pathfinder teams and 3 broadside teams.

Breachers and suits were mobile, as were the railrifle pathfinders.

I don't think it could ever be construed as cheesy. Lots of fun. Good list with good all round killing power. Need to be tactically minded. Not just point and shoot.

How about this for a fun gimmick?

1 naked Crisis Shas'vre + failsafe detonator for a Kamikaze Crisis Shas'vre Suicide Bomber Surprise. Fling him into close combat with a big blob of squishy troops (after pinning them with pathfinder fire so they can't overwatch) and watch him tarpit them for a few turns before blowing up dropping a large blast on them. Bargain at 42pts. Give him an onager guantlet for an 5pts if you are feeling saucy.

Ninja tau works very well of your playing eternal war. I'd call it cheese in that it's gimmicky, but I wouldn't call it op cheese at all. It'll catch people off the first time you do it.

Crisis Teams, Breachers, Devilfish, and pathfinders/marker drones and up the center a Ghostkeel Wing as either supporting fire or distraction carnifex.

You really want to keep the enemies attention off the breachers or they will die fast. Assuming you can sneak them up close they can do serious damage with their guns.

Edit
Also your playing Tau so naturally anything you bring will be declared cheese. Your going to be hated on for life by a large chunk of the community just for playing Tau. Nothing you can do.

Just dont bring heavy supports or MC+ sized things.
use fast things like piranhas and crisis suits for the bulk of your "answers"

del