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Calling all Greater Good!

Considering starting a Tau army, mainly love the big 'monstrous creature' models and was wondering if a low model count suit list was viable in 8th?
Looking for advice on auto takes, auto leaves, good combos/synergy etc.

Not looking for anything uber competitive but something playable. just wanted to test the water before diving in!

Thanks

No.

Are their suits good? Not really for their costs. Are they ok? Sure. They aren't anything to write home about but they just cost so much for the output you get. Best suit-type units I've heard about are the Ghostkeel, Stormsurge (if you call that a suit unit), and Commanders. The others tend to be so-so, but I'm not a Tau player. Just the scuttlebutt I hear. Take that with a grain of salt.

If you spam commanders (and associated drones), specifically, it's definitely good. Point-for-point, you get great power and precision deep-strike.

It won't win you many friends, but it's good.

vaklor4 wrote:No.

LOL... That was quick and precise

Hoodwink wrote:Are their suits good? Not really for their costs. Are they ok? Sure. They aren't anything to write home about but they just cost so much for the output you get. Best suit-type units I've heard about are the Ghostkeel, Stormsurge (if you call that a suit unit), and Commanders. The others tend to be so-so, but I'm not a Tau player. Just the scuttlebutt I hear. Take that with a grain of salt.

I guess I may have to wait for a codex or chapter approved to get a points reshuffle. Ghost keels and commanders two of my fav models in the range though... that's good, thanks.

HuskyWarhammer wrote:If you spam commanders (and associated drones), specifically, it's definitely good. Point-for-point, you get great power and precision deep-strike.

It won't win you many friends, but it's good.

Not looking to spam anything... hoping my list could include a mixture of the following...

Commanders
Ghostkeels
Broadsides
Stealth suits
crisis suits
Riptide
Y'vara
Fire warriors
stormsurge perhaps

The larger suits took a bit of a hit; this edition most "monstrous" things that isn't a Dreadnought or Carnifex took a decent price hike. Combined with the new armor modifiers instead of AP and multi-damage weapons that can strip wounds off of them faster than Donald Trump's angry tweets and you get an environment that favours smaller models.

That said, Commander Suits and Stealth Suits are apparently in vogue; the former for being able to take an utterly astounding number of weapons, essentially making them cheap flying gun batteries (the 2+ BS helps too) while Stealth Suits are decently cheap for what you get. Crisis suits are not bad per se; In a vacuum they are pretty good. The problem is the Commander is a superior unit; on top of doing everything Crisis Suits can do for cheaper (statistically anyways), Commanders are also characters and gets all of the benefits therein. And finally, Commanders fulfill that almighty HQ tax (every detachment besides the superheavy one requires HQs for their mandatory slots, but only one detachment has elites as mandatory).

Also FW suits are known to be pretty nasty still.

Hoodwink wrote:
Also FW suits are known to be pretty nasty still.

Yeah fw stuff is obviously written by somebody else that likes 3d3/6 while gw generally refuses to go over 1d6.

Ghostkeel have an identity crisis but are still OK. Crisis are good when using a homing beacon but good luck getting an opponent to fall for that twice. Riptide are good but expensive to field. Stealth suits are nice, different aesthetic though. Broadside are costly competing with hammerhead and I don't think they come out ahead unless they gain a 2nd support system.

Honestly Longstrike is great, commanders are also. And three units of fire warriors for a battalion +3cp is easy and worthwhile.

Like others have said, Commanders are really good. Stealths are also pretty nice. Ghostkeels with fusion colliders and 2 fusion blasters can do some anti-vehicle work while remaining difficult to hit with their -1 to hit (-2 if further than 12" away and stealth drones nearby). Riptides are overcosted and thus not competitive right now, Crisis are, I think, at least situationally good, as they got a decent durability increase and with the changes to targeting rules you no longer need a hardpoint to split fire your suits, plus you can take 3 weapons and shoot them all. The only downside to them is they are pretty expensive for what you get, but I don't think they are bad by any means. Broadsides got a massive price hike, but they have 6 wounds and their rail rifles are actually really good now (HYMP is overcosted, though). The Stormsurge is still a good fire platform, but it is not nearly as good as it was last edition.

My 2 cents; take with a grain of salt as I haven't tried running Tau in 8th edition yet.

Anything that's not forgeworld a storm surge or a commander is bad. What more, crisis suits are horrible, and just don't use riptides or broadsides ever.

More often then not you pay too much for stuff that misses most the time. Increases to suit durability and fire output were minimal when put in context of the wider changes in 8th, yet most suits doubled or in some cases quadrupled in points. Most are not worth it.

Crisis suits are a little over costed but gun drones are undercosted and they can bring them along in a deep strike. If you arm them cheaply (with plasma or burst cannons) you can get a relatively cheap squad capable of destroying an infantry unit in 1 turn. After that they might die - but it's going to take some focus fire. So I think they are worth their points in that configuration as an anti infantry unit.

Drop a command behind them - and then your commander can make a risky play and still live. It works I think.

I see it like this:

Commanders: Good to OP. These are the star unit in the codex right now.
Stealth Suits: Strong, if a little bit of a one-trick pony. They're basically cheapish, fastish units with durability in the light TEQ class. Can't argue with the cost or the -1 to hit.
Crisis Suits: Weirdly inefficient. I wouldn't call them bad exactly, but they're a little too inaccurate for what you pay.
Ghostkeels: Not bad, though it's not entirely clear what they're meant to be doing.
Riptides: With the HBC, not terrible but too expensive. With the IA, hot garbage.
Broadsides: So close and yet so far. Mostly too expensive. Anything they do, Hammerheads do better. Again, that BS 4+ really stings.
Stormsurges: Not awful, but they suffer from cruddy BS, a punishing degradation table and Lord of War status. If you go second, expect to get pounded.

An all-suits list nowadays, tends to get butchered. You can do fairly well by mixing suits, tanks and infantry though. (Especially Hammerheads. They're not OP, but they're more useful than they've ever been, IMHO.)

Unless it's a commander it's going to underperform. The stealth suit is okay and might have a niche in your lists.

My room mate loves his suits. At 100 PP his last list consisted of:

1 commander
10 man pathfinder
Riptide
Ghostkeel
3 Broadsides
4 x 3 suits of Crisis Suits.

He was wiped off the table miserably. He couldn't put anything down, and as he took casualties his firepower diminished significantly.

Short answer: No, it isn't a good idea.

One would think training all your life for combat, by being born into a Warrior Caste that has heavy emphasis on being able to shoot, would net better then a 4+ by default
By it makes completely sense that Humans veterinarians (Spelling intended) whom survive a few battles get that 3+....

I will forever morn the loss of Sniper-sides though, people underestimate the Heavy Rail Rifle until you give it precise shots on 5 and 6's and turned their Warlord or Plasma Cannon Terminator into paste with a single shot....

Crisis suits with their drones are pretty good for keeping commanders alive and shooting. With flamers and homing beacon support they can do some work against massed infantry, but that really is a one trick pony and you should not expect that to work multiple times.

Really all else is already covered. Stormsurge is a double edge blade, if it survives first turn it can do some work.

 Fueli wrote:
. With flamers and homing beacon support they can do some work against massed infantry, but that really is a one trick pony and you should not expect that to work multiple times.

Don't worry about homing beacons for flamers. With a 16+d6" threat range, they're perfectly happy starting on the field.

So as a Non-Tau player that has an army now, only b.c i like the models, and suits are one of them.

What would the Perfect flamer unit load out for them be? Just all Flamers and nothing else? keeping them cheap or is there something else that is a must.

 Amishprn86 wrote:
So as a Non-Tau player that has an army now, only b.c i like the models, and suits are one of them.

What would the Perfect flamer unit load out for them be? Just all Flamers and nothing else? keeping them cheap or is there something else that is a must.

I've heard good things about two flamers and a fusion blaster each, using it once worked well enough for me until 5 HQs got out of a waveserpent I blew up and did 5 smites. If the dice were more with me the loadout could have still done pretty well. Flamers have worked excellently when baiting a horde of berzerkers and fusion vs tanks or transports that didn't run from the stealth suits. Generally I think that's a nicely hedged bet since it makes use of either weapons range bonus.