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I've never played with or against a Tau Army. Here's the 3500 list I am thinking about building towards. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated as I don't really know what I'm doing with Tau.

2 CADs

HQs:
1 x Ethereal w/ Recon Armor and 2 Shield Drones (attached to a Strike Team)
3 x Cadre Fireblades w/ 2 Shield Drones (each attached to a Strike Team)

Troops:
4 x 12 man Strike Teams w/ EMP grenades, DS8 Tac Support Turret, Shas'ui w/ ML+TL, 1 Shield Drone, and 1 Guardian Drone
2 x 16 man Kroot Carnivore squads with Sniper Rounds

Elites:
2 x Riptides w/Ion Accelerator, TL Plasma Rifle, Early Warning Override, Stim Injector, 2 Shielded Missile Drones
1 x Ghostkeel w/ Fusion Collider, TL Fusion Blaster, Stim Injector

Lord of War:
1 x Stormsurge w/ Pulse Driver Cannon, TL Burst Cannon, Early Warning Override, Shield Generator

Armored Interdiction Cadre
3 x Hammerhead w/ Railgun and Submunition Rounds, 2 x Seeker Missiles, TL Smart Missile System, Blacksun Filter
1 x SkyRay w/ TL Smart Missile System, Blacksun Filter

Ranged Support Cadre
3 x Broadsides w/ TL Heavy Rail Rifle, TL Smart Missile System, 2 Missile Drones
3 x 6 man Pathfinder squad stock.


Units I have but did not include in this list are 6 Stealth Suits, 6 Crisis Suits, 2 Sniper teams, and a Commander.

1st off 3500 is a massive amount of points. Aim for 1850 or whatever your local group uses for standard games. From there on you will know how you like to play THEN build the rest toward the playstyle you develop if you want Apocalypse level games. I've changed my list about 30 times since my first one.

2ndly you lack markerlights which are the staple of every Tau army and cause shooting to become a force multiplier.

From the looks of it with all those troops you might like Gunline Tau. There are also basic style types like Stealth Tau, Battlesuit Tau(Farsight Enclaves.) and the giant monster cheese usually associated with Stormsurges and the riptide variants.(You can have 9 riptides in an army within 3 duplicate formations that give them bonuses with a CAD tax which will ensure you have no friends.) A combination of the aforementioned types is also a thing. Again you will need to develop your own playstyle,but for Gunline Tau based on what you posted I'd recommend a list like the one below with 2 Hunter Cadres instead of CADs.

Hunter Contingent

Hunter Cadre

Commander (1) - 117pts
1 Commander: Crisis battlesuit,2 Plasma rifles,Neuroweb System Jammer

Cadre Fireblade (1) - 60pts
1 Cadre Fireblade

Strike Team (12) - 108pts
12 Fire Warrior: Pulse rifle

Strike Team (12) - 108pts
12 Fire Warrior: Pulse rifle

Kroot Carnivores (16) - 96pts
16 Kroot: Kroot rifle with pulse rounds

XV25 Stealth Battlesuits (3) - 95pts
1 XV25 Stealth Shas'ui: Fusion blaster
2 XV25 Stealth Shas'ui: Burst cannon

Pathfinder Team (4) - 44pts
4 Pathfinder: Pulse carbine and Markerlight

XV88 Broadside Battlesuits (1) - 70pts
1 Broadside Shas'ui: Twin-linked high yield missile pod,Twin-linked smart missile system,Early warning override

TX78 Sky Ray Gunship (1) - 116pts
1 TX78 Sky Ray Gunship: Twin-linked smart missile system,Blacksun filter

Hunter Cadre

Commander (1) - 115pts
1 Commander: Crisis battlesuit,2 Plasma rifles

Cadre Fireblade (1) - 60pts
1 Cadre Fireblade

Strike Team (12) - 108pts
12 Fire Warrior: Pulse rifle

Strike Team (12) - 108pts
12 Fire Warrior: Pulse rifle

Kroot Carnivores (16) - 96pts
16 Kroot: Kroot rifle with pulse rounds

XV25 Stealth Battlesuits (3) - 95pts
1 XV25 Stealth Shas'ui: Fusion blaster
2 XV25 Stealth Shas'ui: Burst cannon

Pathfinder Team (4) - 44pts
4 Pathfinder: Pulse carbine and Markerlight

XV88 Broadside Battlesuits (1) - 70pts
1 Broadside Shas'ui: Twin-linked high yield missile pod,Twin-linked smart missile system,Early warning override

TX78 Sky Ray Gunship (1) - 116pts
1 TX78 Sky Ray Gunship: Twin-linked smart missile system,Blacksun filter

Drone-Net VX1-0

Drones (4) - 56pts
4 MV7 Marker Drone: Markerlight

Drones (4) - 56pts
4 MV7 Marker Drone: Markerlight

Drones (4) - 56pts
4 MV7 Marker Drone: Markerlight

Drones (4) - 56pts
4 MV7 Marker Drone: Markerlight

Total - 1850pts

Formation benefits
This Contingent will maximize your markerlights since anything you have that shoots the same target can do so at the same time and use the same markerlight tokens without needing more. So say you have a Conscript blob coming at your gunline all your fire warriors(Or anything else shooting at them too.) can use the same 1 markerlight token instead of needing 4 to boost your ballistic skill which btw if you use 3 or more units on the same target you get a natural +1 to ballistic skill.

Next is supporting fire. If one of your fire warrior units for example was charged by the same conscript unit as before they can ALL fire overwatch on them within 6 inches normally,but now it's 12 inches with the formation so likely your entire gunline(Or anything else just like before with markerlights.)

Lastly everything within 12 inches of a commander or cadre fireblade can run or flat out and fire. So you can advance into minimum range and fire or withdraw to minimum range and fire keeping your units safe and deadly. While we're on this topic NEVER GET TAU INTO COMBAT. This is why you would want this rule the most.

List Tactics
With the specific list above I would advise you set up your fire warrior gunline and spread your commanders and cadre fireblades appropriately to maximize their formation bonuses 12 inches apart. For example Embedding the fireblades into the two central or flank fire warrior units in your line and keeping the commanders spaced between a central and flank unit on each side.

Behind them should be the broadsides, skyrays, and markerlights. This is your support line. Your broadsides will pop transports and fire on anything coming from enemy reserves. The Skyrays will pull double duty here. They have their own networked markerlights which they can personally use.(Note that is something Tau units cannot normally do or have.) they can then use their markerlights or any other markerlights that hit a vehicle/monster and fire a seeker missile at it or a flyer since it naturally has skyfire. These missiles are D weapons btw and you will have 12 with 2 Skyrays while a single Stormsurge has 4. Lastly is your Markerlight Drones which will be supporting everything you want to die and take up space so nothing can deep strike into the middle of your unit lines. shoot them first and target anything you want to die. Always plan and focus fire and your enemies will have massive casualties inflicted upon them. Your will hit more often as BS is increased,ignore cover and fire D missiles at them when used and this is why we Tau players love and need markerlights. Keep this line of units alive or you will be massacred as it is your AT/AM/AAA/Utility line.

Lastly you have skirmish units. Kroot and stealth suits infiltrated in front of your gunline from the start will allow early game damage and at the very worst a speedbump before any enemy units reach your gunline. Kroot in particular have a moderate ability to actually fight in combat unlike most Tau units,but they will fall to dedicated melee units making them a useful speedbump. Your fusion blaster stealth suits also have AT/AM ability for some early hits to soften up any vehicles or monsters in range. The final cherry on top is your tax of pathfinders in the Hunter Cadres. They are more or less expendable,but useful. You can have them stay with the markerlight drones for increased gunline markerlight support and take up more space to prevent deep striking or use their scout ability to outflank a board edge and markerlight things for your skirmishers possibly from behind the enemy. This is more situational and dependent on table length and terrain,but still a useful mention.

If you are thinking of a different Tau style just let me or anyone else browsing this thread know.

Hi Gryon,

Thanks for all this info! Sorry it took me a while to respond, I've been offline for a bit. Thanks for taking the time to reply. You've given me alot to think about!

Any time. Just keep markerlights and supporting fire in mind.