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.

Here is my first go at a Tau list. I'm new to Tau and 7th edition and am looking to start collecting with a decent army list in mind for the future. Please take a look and see my concerns after the list.

Hunter Contingent

Hunter Cadre

Command

Commander with C&C Node, Multi-spectrum Sensor Suite, Puretide Engram Neurochip, XV8-02 Iridium Battlesuit

Elite

XV104 Riptide with Early Warning Overrid, Ion Accelerator, Stimulant Injector, Twin-linked SMS

3x XV8 Crisis Battlesuits with 2 Fusion Blasters, 2 Target Lock

Fast Attack

TX4 Piranha, Fusion Blaster

Heavy Support

XV88 Broadside Battlesuit with 1 MV8 Missle Drone, Early Warning override, Twin-linked High-Yield Missle Pod, Twin-linked SMS

XV88 Broadside Battlesuit with 1 MV8 Missle Drone, Early Warning override, Twin-linked High-Yield Missle Pod, Twin-linked SMS

Troops

5x Fire Warriors with Pule Rifles

5x Fire Warriors with Pule Rifles

5x Fire Warriors with Pule Rifles

Auxiliary

Firebase Support Cadre

XV104 Riptide with Early Warning Overrid, Ion Accelerator, Stimulant Injector, Twin-linked SMS

XV88 Broadside Battlesuit with 1 MV8 Missle Drone, Early Warning override, Twin-linked High-Yield Missle Pod, Twin-linked SMS

XV88 Broadside Battlesuit with 1 MV8 Missle Drone, Early Warning override, Twin-linked High-Yield Missle Pod, Twin-linked SMS

Optimized Stealth Cadre

3x XV25 Stealth Battlesuits with 1 Fusion Blaster

3x XV25 Stealth Battlesuits with 1 Fusion Blaster

XV95 Ghostkeel Battlesuit with Early Warning Overried, Fusion Collider, Stimulant Injector, Twin-linked Fusion Blaster

Formations

Drone-net VX1-0

4x Marker Drone

4x Marker Drone

4x Marker Drone

4x Marker Drone


My biggest question is whether the drone net is really worth it with the Hunter Contingent. The biggest challenge I'm having is knowing how many marker lights I should pack. Would I be better off dropping it, replacing the piranha with a squad or 2 of marker drones to accompany a drone controller commander? This would free up points to either bolster my Fire Warriors, maybe even a fire blade, or more crisis suits.

Other than that, opinions on loadouts and units are appreciates as well. The commander is a stand in for the list right now. I've talked with some people about the buffmander + hunter contingent cheese, and it's a mixed bag, so I'd like to be able to run a couple different loadouts there.

So you have some good core units but I feel if you reorganize slightly you could gain a lot.

So you have two riptides already, one more and they can all fire twice(usually 1st or 2nd turn) as a brutal alpha strike taking out key damage units early(looking at you grav cannon devestators).

The drone formation is great for marker lights, so much so that it makes the drone commander feel a bit wasted. You have to think also what are your makerlights going to feed. Consolidating units and giving them target locks if nesessary will go a long way towards making your army less marker hungry. The drone formation should offer 8 markers a turn, you can still attach a commander here and make one squad slightly bigger keep all your special rules and get bs 5.

You have too many auxiliary choices, if you drop either the support cadre or the fire base you can make the other more effective.

Bufmander is outdated now that we can take those systems on crisis Sargents. Now you can have your twin linked and ignores cover without sacrificing bs5 on your commander. He should probably still take a pure tide chip but that's it for signiture systems. And the pure tide chip only works on the model not the unit so that buff won't be hunter contingent wide. So not as cheesy as some would hope, only re roll hits and ignores cover.

So I would say focus your list some down to the key parts. The beef those up and see if you can't start deleting important units early in the game in the shooting phase.

Thanks for the tips.

I kind of want to stay away from the riptide formation for the moment. Not a lot of people that I'd be playing against would appreciate it. I will definitely get a 3rd one at some point, but I want to build a list to aim for to start purchasing models without it.

When you say I have too many auxiliary units, do you mean from a legal list standpoint or just from diluting the army too much? I assume the second unless I horribly misread something. In that case, I would likely drop the firebase support cadre and field 2 x 2 broadsides. Is 4 broadside overkill? I really want to keep the optimized stealth cadre, love the idea and the models so much.

For the commander, I can drop the buffmander options and slap a couple guns and a drone controller/target lock to shave some points. I seem to keep gravitating to fusion, is that a mistake?

With some saved points, would it be a good idea to give skyline to something?

I meant too many auxiliary choices. Focussing points by say adding ghostkeels and dropping the firebase.

The riptide wing is strong so maybe too strong for your intentions.

I am not a fan of piranhas without the firestream formation. They just have trouble making back points. But there aren't many good choices for us in fast attack in the hunter contingent. I always go drones or maybe a squad of pathfinders if I really don't have another option for extra markers.

Fusions are good for the commander. I also like double plasma or even double cyclic ion. 6 s7 shots is nothing to sneeze at. Just depends what you want him to do that the rest of your army can't do.

I don't think 4 broadsides is overkill. They aren't what they used to be but they are still good.

Epartalis wrote:
I meant too many auxiliary choices. Focussing points by say adding ghostkeels and dropping the firebase.

So am I misunderstanding the hunter contingent, which would allow 1-10 auxiliary choices? Both the firebase and the optimized stealth cadre should fall under that, should they not? Or is that to be read as maximum of 1 auxiliary per core?

Is interceptor (and the other bonuses for the drone network) worth the extra points that I could save and put elsewhere if I dropped the piranha and replaced it with a decent sized marker drone squad to attach to the commander? I could easily save 100+ points there.

You are correct, in a hunter contingent you can have 1-10 auxiliary choices.

What I am trying to say it that it is better to do one thing well then a bunch of things poorly. As a 40k philosophy I try to find one thing that is generally effective(mid strength(s6-7) weapons are a good example because they wound t4 on 2+ and they can deal with light vehicles) and then round out my list with specialist elements. Something to deal with2+ armor, something to deal with high av(like 13-14), and possibly a tar pit or throw away unit.

As to the drones. When I run hunter contingent(which I don't do often because of the ITC ruling on their special rules - the updated FAQ supports the RAW argument) I do what you are saying. I forget drone net(even though it's amazing) and I focus on a beefy auxiliary choice and a strong core. For me the hunter contingent will field at least one stormsurge, likely two, and a optimized stealth cadre maxing ghostkeels because again amazing. So I have a ton of mid strength s7 with 3 ion rakers 3 twin linked burst cannons(all base bs5 for fire team and formation rules) and then the 6 more burst cannons from the two stealth teams. All of this ignores cover, and takes care of light vehicles. Now throw in one squad of crisis suits with fusion for any av14 threats. Now go back to the hunter cadre and try to fill out specific needs. The commander can take care of markers with drones. What else do you need/want? Up to you, storm surges can be kinda mean in the wrong meta but they are flexible with all the different guns. I know not many people do but I like sniper drones, additional source of bs5 markers is never bad.

I have to say I really appreciate all of your input on this. I looked up the ITC FAQ, and was not aware of the clarifications they made. I want to aim towards something that is relatively optimized to the point that I could take to a smaller local tournament, which typically do follow the ITC rules.

With the newfound knowledge from the FAQ, that would explain why I rarely see anyone posting the Hunter Contingent in their lists. Would just dropping down to a CAD with a formation or 2 be better off? That would make the drone net more valuable than in the hunter cadre. I'd easily be able to fit in another Ghostkeel that way (those models are so damn sexy), or hell, I could look in to a Y'vahra from forge world.

Thanks again man!

I Would highly recommend the Y'vahra. Due to it's BS4 and Torrent, it tends to be more Marker independent, and as such, more plug-and-play into different list builds. If you are looking at Tau Forgeworld, don't overlook the Tetra! It comes in a two pack for $49, and is a steal at that price. Heavy 2, Twin Linked Markerlights with a Homing Beacon and the ability to Scout and Outflank on a Fast Skimmer for the cost of a Stim Injector on a Riptide. They are the other all-star FW unit for Tau.

In the mean time, the Hunter Contingent is a good formation, but You really need to build your list around it to maximize the benefits. I like the setup you were going for in the first draft, MSU is what the Contingent is all about. The Stormsurge tends to shine in these lists, filling a Quarterback-like role for Coordinated Firepower. With the new Errata on CF there is no more wiggle room to argue that benefits propagate to other squads joining in; they clearly do not. The Firebase is still a serviceable Formation (the old one was crazy), but you might consider moving those units into the Hunter Cadre in order for all the Broadsides to use its buffs. The Cadre lets them run and shoot (when near the Commander). Technically Running doesn't force Heavy weapons to Snapfire, so they gain a nice bit of mobility they would otherwise be without. Broadsides can really shine with Unbreakable Bonds of Comradeship. I find that when opponents talk about "OP Tau Overwatch", they charged into Broadside Overwatch. High Strength, Twin Linked, shooting from 12", is pretty good. One or two Markerlights to pick up, and you could knock them out of charge range (unless it's a Deathstar).

The CAD tends to be less restrictive in compulsory units and Objective Secured is a fantastic ability. Tau can't go wrong here, and Farsight Enclaves CADs are great if you want all Battlesuits. This is the only way to take any Forgeworld, if you do decide to pick any up. The Formations Tau have are very strong wether they are in either Contingent or not, so you can match them up to taste, and play what you want.

One last thing: I also fell in love with the Ghostkeel model, I preordered 3 before the leaked pics even showed its actual size. I love that unit too much and ended up getting 5. If you are getting one, don't get a second until you are ready to get a third. Both Ghostkeel Formations are great in their own rights, OSC is mean and independent of Markers, the Ghostkeel Wing is very tactical and a super-support unit. The OSC can be really good barebones with one Ghostkeel, and functions admirable that way, but spending the points for two won't really get you a good bang for your buck. Three is amazing in the OSC, but a big percentage of your list. The kit is amazingly fun to put together, and you have almost full articulation of the joints once you clip off the suggested pose pins.

Going for 3 Ghostkeels is totally something I'd love to do. The question I have for you Plainshow is how you equip them? Fusion colliders vs cyclic ion raker. Or a mix? My initial thought would be 2 rakers and 1 collider in an OSC.

My usual loadout is usually all Ion Rakers. This is for a pair of reasons:

-The Collider is, sadly, only one shot. With the high output of the Raker and the alternate Large Blast, there is way more potential damage.

-The range is a huge factor. The Collider not only has 6" shorter range, but really wants to get into Melta range. This leaves the Ghostkeel in a precariously close distance for an Assault. At 24" away, the Raker can still hit and jump back out of the Charge range of even a 12" moving unit. If you're running an OSC where there are 3 Ghostkeels in one unit, you really can't afford to have that many points go down in Assault. This is a deal breaker for me.

I find the secondary weapon to be more of a head-scratcher. Everyone I see posting here is taking Fusion Blasters for their Twin Linked option. I really don't need the extra anti-tank shooting, so I usually take Burst Cannons. I find they function slightly better for Interceptor and Supporting Fire, but that's just me. I don't think you can really go wrong here with either choice, but I feel it is more of a preferential call than an auto-include situation.

When you roll with 3 Ghostkeels, I take it you aren't concurrently running a Riptide wing? That would seem like way too many points tied up in those 2. How many Riptides do you find yourself running when you do bring 3 Ghostkeels? Eventually, I'd like to have 3 of each, but that's a ways off, since I literally just started with my initial purchase on Saturday, Have 1 of each at the moment.

Storik wrote:
When you roll with 3 Ghostkeels, I take it you aren't concurrently running a Riptide wing? That would seem like way too many points tied up in those 2.

Assuming an 1850 game, you can absolutely fit both in. On my club nights or in a narrative campaign I rarely would bring the Riptide Wing, unless it was requested by my opponent. My Ghostkeels usually are the Battlesuit of choice in those settings. When I take the Riptide Wing, I often don't field a single Ghostkeel. I find the Riptide Wing (Str6-8 shooting) makes the Ghostkeels firepower redundant. I am usually trying to fill specific holes that the Riptides don't want to waste their firepower on, like high AV targets. The Riptides can go after almost anything, and have a shot of doing damage, but I try to mitigate the amount of "bad math" situations that I make them fire into.

Storik wrote:
How many Riptides do you find yourself running when you do bring 3 Ghostkeels?

When I run a 3 Ghostkeels, I usually have two of three other units on the board:
-Riptide with an Earth Caste Pilot Array (Farsight Enclaves Supplement System).
-Y'vahra
-Stormsurge (one or two)

I'm definitely thinking about picking up a couple more ghostkeels now. What are your thoughts on running an Osc with either a dawn blade contingent or farsight CAD? Would snag the drone the formation as either the auxiliary for contingent, or as a stand alone for the CAD.

Storik wrote:
What are your thoughts on running an Osc with either a dawn blade contingent or farsight CAD? Would snag the drone the formation as either the auxiliary for contingent, or as a stand alone for the CAD.

I think the OSC is absolutely strong enough to stand on it's own (outside the Hunter Contingent). I think it would do great with a CADs flexibility to bring units that can do whatever else the OSC can't. The Dawn Balde might work, as the makeup is also pretty malleable, but it seems like the FSE CAD or Hunter Contingent would be a better fit. Try it out and see, you may find a very complimentary build of the DBC. Certainly the Retaliation Cadre as a core would not have to worry about getting tabled before it can come in with an OSC on the table.