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Hi everyone,
So haven't played since 6th and even then didn't play very much didn't have a ton of time to play 40k with most of my time spent on Fantasy.
8th has me interested but being away from 40k for 2-3 years or so has me a bit flustered.
Currently the local shop plays 1500 points I believe so I'm shooting for 1500 points with a good variety of options, now I'm not sure the price points of stuff now points wise but here's what I have right now and was wondering if anyone could give me some tips on what to buy next:
24 firewarriors (not the new ones)
16 Kroot
9 XV8 battlesuits
1 Riptide
1 hammerhead (with longstrike and have both heavy railrifle and the ion)
30+ drones
3 stealth suits.
1 piranha

I'm thinking about pathfinder, some HQ choices i.e the new commander suits because I just used the regular xv8 suit as a commander and then possibly a unit of vespids. I know 8th isn't out yet but wouldn't mind picking some new stuff up so it's ready soon!

Tau are in a weird place right now; markerlights aren't anywhere near as effective at making a single unit hit way harder than they were in 6th/7th, but since you don't expend counters anymore (a markerlight counter is just "all Tau units shooting the marked unit get (x) until your next turn") they may actually be more effective in some ways.

I'd suggest spreading out your Markerlights (sergeants and scattered marker drones) rather than concentrating them in Pathfinder teams; the 1-counter and 3-counter thresholds make the target slightly easier to hit (reroll 1s and no move-and-fire penalty, respectively), and since you don't need to expend the counters to get the benefit anymore and since a unit can now fire as many weapons at as many targets as it likes five individual markerlights are just more effective than a chunk of five in a Pathfinder unit.

I'd suggest Sniper Drones, Ethereals, Pathfinders, and a Coldstar commander would be good next places to go; the Coldstar suit isn't a straight-up can't-charge-me FMC anymore, but it does make the commander absurdly fast and lets him spread firepower/buffs quite widely; character buffs have gotten a lot more important, the Ethereal's have gotten cooler, and snipers are the most effective way to get rid of Resurrection Orbs and Painboyz and things before they utterly ruin your day; and the Pathfinders' heavy guns and support drones have gotten a lot better.

Non-Coldstar Commanders are getting a lot of hype for point efficiency in 8. 4xFusion Blaster is appearing in a lot of 8e lists.

I see you don't have a Broadside. Railsides and Missilesides are both looking good.

Personally I'm going to get Commander Shadowsun, and as you already have stealth suits she has some synergy with those.

frankly, get more Kroot or Pathfinders. Both have an advance move that can be used to deny first turn assaults on your more important models.

Thanks guys! I think a group of pathfinders would be good just to have and I'll definitely pick up one of the new commanders! Still thinking another piranha or 2 I think a few of those would be sweet since they sucked in 6th.

How's the sunsharks bomber this edition? Back in 6th everyone hated on it but I liked the model so maybe it improved?

From what I'm reading Tau really took a hearty slap to the hoohaas so far in 8th but that's okay since I'm coming back I'll be relearning anyways!

 chiefbigredman wrote:
Thanks guys! I think a group of pathfinders would be good just to have and I'll definitely pick up one of the new commanders! Still thinking another piranha or 2 I think a few of those would be sweet since they sucked in 6th.

How's the sunsharks bomber this edition? Back in 6th everyone hated on it but I liked the model so maybe it improved?

From what I'm reading Tau really took a hearty slap to the hoohaas so far in 8th but that's okay since I'm coming back I'll be relearning anyways!

Razorshark is terrible, but the Bomber is actually pretty good

The way the Pulse Bomb works is actually pretty good...
Pick a unit you flew over
Roll a d6 for each model in that unit, max 10d6
On each 5+ the unit suffers a mortal wound
Unless that unit is Infantry, in which case you only need a 4+

So let's say a unit of 10 models, that will likely cause 5 wounds
Ignoring Cover, Armor, Invulnerable, Toughness.

 Talamare wrote:

 chiefbigredman wrote:
Thanks guys! I think a group of pathfinders would be good just to have and I'll definitely pick up one of the new commanders! Still thinking another piranha or 2 I think a few of those would be sweet since they sucked in 6th.

How's the sunsharks bomber this edition? Back in 6th everyone hated on it but I liked the model so maybe it improved?

From what I'm reading Tau really took a hearty slap to the hoohaas so far in 8th but that's okay since I'm coming back I'll be relearning anyways!

Razorshark is terrible, but the Bomber is actually pretty good

The way the Pulse Bomb works is actually pretty good...
Pick a unit you flew over
Roll a d6 for each model in that unit, max 10d6
On each 5+ the unit suffers a mortal wound
Unless that unit is Infantry, in which case you only need a 4+

So let's say a unit of 10 models, that will likely cause 5 wounds
Ignoring Cover, Armor, Invulnerable, Toughness.

That seems great! 5+ kinda stinks but ignoring cover, armour invul and toughness makes up for it! Might have to pick one of these up

Is the Pulse Bomb 'One Use Only' or could you drop it every turn?

 Bach wrote:
Is the Pulse Bomb 'One Use Only' or could you drop it every turn?

Every turn. In the previous codex, You had to roll a die after using it; on a 6+, it stopped working. This was removed in the index

3 railrifle broadsides and a kroot shaper would be a fairly decent choice. Or possibly a sunshark for hoard killing

Bobug wrote:
3 railrifle broadsides and a kroot shaper would be a fairly decent choice. Or possibly a sunshark for hoard killing

Think broadsides would be a good choice? From the battle reports and people who have played some 8th have said that the railside broadsides are too static

Kroot shaper is a good choice tho! I think I will be picking up a sunsharks bomber though the weapon seems decent and gives some different flavour then what Tau used to play!

 chiefbigredman wrote:

Bobug wrote:
3 railrifle broadsides and a kroot shaper would be a fairly decent choice. Or possibly a sunshark for hoard killing

Think broadsides would be a good choice? From the battle reports and people who have played some 8th have said that the railside broadsides are too static

Kroot shaper is a good choice tho! I think I will be picking up a sunsharks bomber though the weapon seems decent and gives some different flavour then what Tau used to play!

Railsides are probably the best option to place EWO onto and one of the best anti tanks we have.
If you really want mobility, just give them Target Locks

Edit - HYMP aren't as good this edition tho, you're better off probably just using Monat MP