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Greetings!

Experienced gamer, new to 40k.

Please help me round out a 1000pt TAU army - Your expert advice needed!
- What troops are needed?
- What is good unit composition with these opponents?

Primary Opponents: Eldar, Khorne Demonkin

Units thus far:

HQ
Ethereal
Commander

Elites/Hvy
3x XV8 Crisis
2x XV88 Broadside
1x XV104 Riptide

Troops / Fast Attack
10x Breacher
10x Pathfinder
+ whatever drones

Current Questions:
- Need more troops, but which kind for this mix and opponent?
- Is Devilfish necessary?
- Are Piranhas worth it?
- What am I missing?
- Is there a good combo with these units?

Thanks in advance,
THG

Here are a couple 40k generalities, not rules, but Rues-of-Thumb I've gleaned after 11 years:

1+1 troop units per 500 points, so 3 units is good at 1000 points
1 HQ per 1000 points
Upgrades on troops - Don't load them up with drones or toys. Run 'em lean. When not having enough models to make certain points liimits, players 'push' their lists to higher levels with upgrades that don't always mean good contributions to more killing, and are more costly when those units die.



Tau specific to your listed models:
a. Strike teams are fine. Kroot are good for the Outflank threat, but they're so delicate, easily killed, that most players stick with Fire Warriors with Pulse Rifles. I have not seen kroot for a long time. For the moment, run two units of min sized squads and see where your point values come in approaching 1k.

b. XV8 guns
1. against daemons - Going with volume fire is best, so dual Burst Cans. Volume instead of high armor piercing because daemons are relying on Invuln Saves.
2. against Eldar - It is a toss up as there's a lot of variety to the army. If I were to tool to face elves, I'd go dual PRs as spiders and bikes are armor 3+.

c. HQs:
1. ethereals are generally bad. That gun-line buff looks nice, but their extra point of dying, and being really squishy makes for a meh HQ
2. Cmdr suit - Irid Armor, two guns, (stims maybe). Or Drone Controller, 2 Missile Pods, and two Marker Drones. A Squad of MArker Drones joins him and they get to shoot at BS5 instead of their poor BS2.

d. D'fish - Nope. They are too pricey compared to rhinos for a relatively no-gun transport.
e. Riptide - HBC, Stims, SMS, EWO
f. XV88- HYMP & Missile Drones
g. piranhas? I haven't bought them in 10+ years of playing tau. At this time, the favorites of the codex are not piranhas. It doesn't mean they're not good, but there are several better pieces to use, Riptides, StormSurges, GhostKeels, XV8s.

9, the Magic Number
Unless I'm playing muhreens, I halt at 9 guy per squad, with the 25% Morale Check mechanic, the next best place is 12 dudes

Markers
A squadron of 4 Marker Drones, maybe two of these ought to be enough Marker Support at 1k. Or, since you already have the PathFinders, one squad of them, say 6 dudes, and then a squad of Marker Drones, 6 of them. Even at 1850 points, I wouldn't have any more than 3 units of Marker Support.

Keep the missions that you play simple as you learn 40k's Ins and Outs. Emperor's Will, Big Guns, Purge the Alien.