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In starting a Tau force designed to be strong and competitive, are there any obvious auto-includes in what should be included in an army?

Thank you!

Competitive?

3 riptides. And a stormsurge.

Don't plan on making friends, though.

In fact, people might actively avoid playing with you.

Is there a reason generic Riptides get all the love? Yes, taken as a Wing they get the BS bump, but Y'vahra's have it natively and do everything they do... but better.

He's being snarky. But he does have a point. Riptides are basically the poster child for auto-includes, even across editions. Simply because they are tough, fast and mount decent weapons. And unlike the V'varhra, they're a core-codex unit so there's little reason for opponents to object to them (normally people still have issues with FW ones). In addition, Riptides have formations they can be taken in, where the Y'varhra can't.

Aside from riptides, Battlesuits. These suckers are cheap, mobile, and highly customizable. You can field battlesuits armed with missile launchers, effectively flying autocannons (something other armies would kill to get) or outfit them with plasma rifles to deal with heavy armor.

Lastly, Marker lights. I don't remember the best unit for this, but as many as you can get. Marker lights can raise your BS, help with overwatch, ignore enemy cover (HUGE) and so forth. Eldar are considered broken because their broken units are point and shoot, but Tau are broken because when used in a combined way they can completely break the basic rules of the game. Or at least ignore almost all the ones that don't favour them.

MechaEmperor7000 wrote:Lastly, Marker lights. I don't remember the best unit for this

It's my understanding that markerlight drones and pathfinders are popular.

Buffmander with Marker Drone Squad seems good... pathfinders *seem* lackluster, that they're so fragile (I hear they're played as "use em while I got em")


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So,fielding "tripTide" is effective that they'll be 750 pts ... and will make it back?

MekLeN wrote:
Buffmander with Marker Drone Squad seems good... pathfinders *seem* lackluster, that they're so fragile (I hear they're played as "use em while I got em")


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So,fielding "tripTide" is effective that they'll be 750 pts ... and will make it back?

Riptides are practically immortal and, if used properly (read, always kept in cover, properly equipped, etc.), will be able to kill things at range with impunity.

Though, once again, I wish to stress:

You won't make friends that way. You might win games...when people are willing to play against you at all.

MekLeN wrote:
Buffmander with Marker Drone Squad seems good... pathfinders *seem* lackluster, that they're so fragile (I hear they're played as "use em while I got em")


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So,fielding "tripTide" is effective that they'll be 750 pts ... and will make it back?

There is a reason it is a near ubiquitous build.

Yes it will, either through just soaking up fire or erasing units. The exact best build is some what region dependent, if you face a lot 3+ units then you go ion cannon, if you need to bring down aircraft burst cannon and skyfire, Deepstrike/Reserve area denial use EWO.

Stormsurges and Riptides are very competitive, but not unkillable. Just dont bring them against someone who didnt ask for a competitive game. Three riptides is a must take honestly. And you asked about Y'Vahras, those are also excellent. Its very easy to fit 3 Riptides, a Surge, and 2 Y'Vahras in a list. And its a very, very good one.

Yes RIptide is awesome, but I think fielding more than one leads an army to be less strategic. I only play Tau, but I hate how the new formations and rules have turned what used to be a highly synergistic army into a one or two trick pony of just taking Riptides and Stormsurges. I liked it better when you would see variety in the army. You know a Riptide, some Crisis Suits, some Broadsides, maybe a squad of Stealth Suits. Even in a friendly game, I get the question of why I am not spamming Riptides and Stormsurges. My answer is I wanna win by how I play the game not because I am using the just the uber units in my army.

Hmmm... yeah. I understand now, of the riptides.

Is the Firebase Support Cadre nerfed into the ground?

Compared to what it was, yeah.

I also can't believe that nobody has mentioned OSC or drone net yet.

Oh yeah?
OSC and Drone Net?


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Spectrum Spidey:
I have proxied about a dozen games with Tau at this point.
DualTide was very effective; found that unless brought down low early game the "brothers" never fell at all.

I've tried a variety of msu & fish of fury tactics, and have found them to be solid against standard opponent units like other troops, but to do the heavy lifting they just couldn't perform.

I've tried drone teams and buffmander w/ markers, decent but not spectacular. Definitely drew a lot of fire, for sure, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Tried masses of phirana - many cool tricks like denying movement and controlling the table. I think they'll find a way on there somehow.

Stealth suits were handy; haven't tried the new ones.
Shadowsun seems way awesome, shroud&stealth to whomever she joins, with dual melta and that awesome drone.

I've dabbled in crisis teams and when adequately wrapped in drones definitely can do some damage.was considering a bodyguard crisis unit for Shadowsun, targetlocks and marker drones, with buffmander to make them all awesome. Seems like a tough little unit.
HBC Riptide beside it - bs5 w/ that drone of hers, formation lets loose and bam! there goes a land raider.

I believe I have some specialist fire figured out.
What for the massed fire option? Are riptides an equivalent of the standard Knights in terms of facing an army by themselves?

MekLeN wrote:
Oh yeah?
OSC and Drone Net?


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Spectrum Spidey:
I have proxied about a dozen games with Tau at this point.
DualTide was very effective; found that unless brought down low early game the "brothers" never fell at all.

I've tried a variety of msu & fish of fury tactics, and have found them to be solid against standard opponent units like other troops, but to do the heavy lifting they just couldn't perform.

I've tried drone teams and buffmander w/ markers, decent but not spectacular. Definitely drew a lot of fire, for sure, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Tried masses of phirana - many cool tricks like denying movement and controlling the table. I think they'll find a way on there somehow.

Stealth suits were handy; haven't tried the new ones.
Shadowsun seems way awesome, shroud&stealth to whomever she joins, with dual melta and that awesome drone.

I've dabbled in crisis teams and when adequately wrapped in drones definitely can do some damage.was considering a bodyguard crisis unit for Shadowsun, targetlocks and marker drones, with buffmander to make them all awesome. Seems like a tough little unit.
HBC Riptide beside it - bs5 w/ that drone of hers, formation lets loose and bam! there goes a land raider.

I believe I have some specialist fire figured out.
What for the massed fire option? Are riptides an equivalent of the standard Knights in terms of facing an army by themselves?

Unless your going all suits and specializing, Tau do need a mix of tricks. I and a few others on here are still fond of massed FW, but you do need a few things in the list to deal with the tougher nuts.

A Riptide can't really face off against an army by itself. It is a tough MC, but still just an MC. The 5++/Nova 3++ gives it some extra punch against heavy weapons but at the end it is just a really big terminator. I have personally tied on up most of a game with a big bunch of fearless gaunts. It just could not kill enough to get out of assault.

As good as a Riptide is against standard units, when it faces a Knight ( or any thing else that can bring Str D) it dies as easy as everything else. Hurts to watch a Knight stomp a Riptide out of the game.

For competitive play, it's seeming like at least 1 Stormsurge is essentially mandatory for D attacks (and stomps, to a lesser degree). Other than that, we have enough good options that nothing is required. Riptide Wings and Drone Nets are extremely powerful tax-free formations and will probably find their ways into most competitive lists. After that, you still have a lot of strong choices but nothing that clearly stands above the rest.

The OSC is very powerful, but the Stealth Suit tax is troubling. I wouldn't call Stealth Suits a waste, but they're a shaky choice even with the formation bonuses. Ghostkeels, while very good thanks to durability, don't tend to dish out THAT much hurt per cost. The Ranged Support Cadre puts out a ridiculous amount of damage (doubly so in a DBC against your pseudo-Doomed unit) but is static. The Firestream Wing Drone factory has been gutted in most tournament FAQs and suffers from having to constantly move drones from your own board edge. The list goes on.

I see the three Riptide attacks in CC, one wound dealt a turn. I've found myself failing to power axe scout squads, then falling back on a failed LD check and have the terrible initiative fail it's test vs theirs and see it disappear. Many times.

The H&R FW Riptide looks very nice!

The Firestream Wing Drone Factory is now the Firestream Wing Drone and Seeker Factory. Take Seekers on every Piranha, use them every time. You can get 3 waves of Drones and 3 volleys of Seekers in the 5 turn game.

SJ

=D


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Wow. Yes. Ty.


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4 pirhannas, dual seekers each, hop on and off every other turn, drop drones and unleash seekers. Stay outa range til needed later game; early game ueash and unload

Triptide is the fastest way to lose friends