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I joined a FLGS campaign, and instead of my normal Chaos, I am signing up with my super old Tau. We're talking metal Pathfinders, Crisis/Broadsides, and Kroot. Why? Because I was gifted a Tau army and I never get a chance to practice with them. This will be the best way, as we're going to start at 500 and scale up.

I have a very limited amount of models, so I built a "WYSIWYG" list without being too OP, since this will be a for fun campaign. Any advice is greatly appreciated as I have never played with Tau.

CAD: 498 pts

HQ:
Commander, TL Missile Pod, Fusion Blaster, Neuroweb System Jammer

Elites:
XV8 Crisis Battlesuits, 2x TL Missile Pod & Fusion Blaster, Burst cannon & Fusion Blaster (This is a heavily WYSIWYG unit. I have 5 of the old metal Crisis/Broadsides. The other 2 have Heavy Railguns on them.)

Troops:
Strike Team, 7x Fire Warrior, Shas'ui, 2x Shield Drone (If we end up playing on less than a 6x4 I have an alternate list with a Breacher Team with the same layout, but the drones are the Guardian Drones. I am just concerned about one of my troop choices being limited to a 15' shooting range.
10x Kroot Carnivores, Sniper Rounds

Fast Attack
4x Pathfinders


My idea is to play mostly sit back try to pick you off from a distance. I am going to use the Pathfinders to Markerlight. I want to use the Kroot because the models I was gifted are amazingly painted, and I love the fact you can make them all snipers for 10 points. I am hoping this nabs me some early Slay the Warlord and First Blood.

The other models I have are a Riptide, a Hammerhead, a Piranha, a Devilfish, about 22 more Fire Warriors, some various drones, and a Kroot Rider and 5 Kroot Hounds. I didn't want to bring the Riptide or the Hammerhead until we get to a higher point total as I feel they would instantly make me TFG.

I understand you're working with WYSIWYG, but can you do some cutting? The reason I ask is because mixing weapons on Crisis suits, (especially Fusion Blasters and Missile Pods, two totally different weapons with different threat priorities), is not ideal. Typically, you want your Crisis suits to do one thing really well, so 2x Missile Pods for light vehicles, 2x Fusion Blasters for heavy vehicles, 2x Burst Cannons for anti-horde, etc. I would look into making one squad of two with 2x Missile Pod each and one squad of one with dual Fusions.

Kroot are a good unit. They're good at what they do for a very reasonable points cost and sometimes do hilarious game-changing things with Sniper Rounds. I think you're correct to favour Strikers over Breachers. Breachers really need a Devilfish to get the most out of them. However, the Shas'ui upgrade isn't very useful. The difference between LD7 and LD8 is negligible. Additionally, the shield drones are meh. 24 points for two 4+ ablative wounds is a waste. Gun Drones are a better compliment because they still give you the ablative wounds, but also add firepower and can cause pinning. Nonetheless, no drones is what most Tau players aim for. Use the points for more Fire Warriors. Pathfinders are bad and I don't think you need Markerlights at 500 points. I would drop them for more Firewarriors, the Krootox or the Piranha.

I hope this helps!

 counterwavecounter wrote:
I understand you're working with WYSIWYG, but can you do some cutting? The reason I ask is because mixing weapons on Crisis suits, (especially Fusion Blasters and Missile Pods, two totally different weapons with different threat priorities), is not ideal. Typically, you want your Crisis suits to do one thing really well, so 2x Missile Pods for light vehicles, 2x Fusion Blasters for heavy vehicles, 2x Burst Cannons for anti-horde, etc. I would look into making one squad of two with 2x Missile Pod each and one squad of one with dual Fusions.

Kroot are a good unit. They're good at what they do for a very reasonable points cost and sometimes do hilarious game-changing things with Sniper Rounds. I think you're correct to favour Strikers over Breachers. Breachers really need a Devilfish to get the most out of them. However, the Shas'ui upgrade isn't very useful. The difference between LD7 and LD8 is negligible. Additionally, the shield drones are meh. 24 points for two 4+ ablative wounds is a waste. Gun Drones are a better compliment because they still give you the ablative wounds, but also add firepower and can cause pinning. Nonetheless, no drones is what most Tau players aim for. Use the points for more Fire Warriors. Pathfinders are bad and I don't think you need Markerlights at 500 points. I would drop them for more Firewarriors, the Krootox or the Piranha.

I hope this helps!

This helps a lot. I've played against Tau once and ran through them like tissues with an all Melee Khorne list, and have never played as them. I was thinking drones = must take.

I see what you mean about the Crisis suits.

What about this list:

CAD: 500 pts

HQ:
Commander, 2x Missile Pods, Neuroweb System Jammer

Elites:
2x XV8 Crisis Battlesuits, 2x Missile Pods

Troops:
Strike Team, 8x Fire Warrior
Strike Team, 8x Fire Warrior
10x Kroot Carnivores, Sniper Rounds

Heavy Support:
Broadside Battle Suit, SMS, Heavy Rail Rifle

I like that list better. It's more focused with good threat diversity. Anything with AV13/14 will be a problem, but you shouldn't see much of that at 500 points. May the dice gods be forever in your favour!

 counterwavecounter wrote:
I like that list better. It's more focused with good threat diversity. Anything with AV13/14 will be a problem, but you shouldn't see much of that at 500 points. May the dice gods be forever in your favour!

I worked well enough to table a list of Melee nids. He couldn't get enough to me, and I surprised him by charging my fire warriors into his Warlord gribbly. It was a lot of dice to try to make 3+ saves on.

 Darth_Mox wrote:

 counterwavecounter wrote:
I understand you're working with WYSIWYG, but can you do some cutting? The reason I ask is because mixing weapons on Crisis suits, (especially Fusion Blasters and Missile Pods, two totally different weapons with different threat priorities), is not ideal. Typically, you want your Crisis suits to do one thing really well, so 2x Missile Pods for light vehicles, 2x Fusion Blasters for heavy vehicles, 2x Burst Cannons for anti-horde, etc. I would look into making one squad of two with 2x Missile Pod each and one squad of one with dual Fusions.

Kroot are a good unit. They're good at what they do for a very reasonable points cost and sometimes do hilarious game-changing things with Sniper Rounds. I think you're correct to favour Strikers over Breachers. Breachers really need a Devilfish to get the most out of them. However, the Shas'ui upgrade isn't very useful. The difference between LD7 and LD8 is negligible. Additionally, the shield drones are meh. 24 points for two 4+ ablative wounds is a waste. Gun Drones are a better compliment because they still give you the ablative wounds, but also add firepower and can cause pinning. Nonetheless, no drones is what most Tau players aim for. Use the points for more Fire Warriors. Pathfinders are bad and I don't think you need Markerlights at 500 points. I would drop them for more Firewarriors, the Krootox or the Piranha.

I hope this helps!

This helps a lot. I've played against Tau once and ran through them like tissues with an all Melee Khorne list, and have never played as them. I was thinking drones = must take.

I see what you mean about the Crisis suits.

What about this list:

CAD: 500 pts

HQ:
Commander, 2x Missile Pods, Neuroweb System Jammer

Elites:
2x XV8 Crisis Battlesuits, 2x Missile Pods

Troops:
Strike Team, 8x Fire Warrior
Strike Team, 8x Fire Warrior
10x Kroot Carnivores, Sniper Rounds

Heavy Support:
Broadside Battle Suit, SMS, Heavy Rail Rifle

While in larger point games the Suit advice is accurate, in smaller point level games, doing mixes like MP+Fusion+CDS or Burstcannon+FB(Forgestorm) can be better than optimized suits because you need the greater threat variety. At 500 points a Forgestorm can be devastating having enough shot volume to hurt hordes and 2+/3++ units, with a strong enough punch to scare MC and heavy A/V.