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I have gone through and researched all the armies I was interested in, figured out what tactics people use, to my chagrin as every tactic is essentially spamming a single unit, but I ignore those and build a balanced army. Anyways, my friend wants to play Tau, and isn't as good at researching as I am, less patience, and he is interested in build an army consisting primarily of vehicles and battlesuits. Are there any vehicles and battlesuits in particular that would make a list like this viable? We aren't looking to be super competitive, but I want him to have fun, and I don't want him to run a list that will be easily beaten. I mentioned that the Astra Militarum runs a lot of vehicles that are really good, but he likes the Tau a lot, so I am just looking to get some pointers on how people would build a fully vehicle and battlesuit army so I can help him out.

Addendum, he is perfectly willing to run some troops, but not a lot, basically enough to get a battalion going, but since he found out he can just run specialized detachments without any of the 3 primary ones, he is focused on that.

CelticKodiak wrote:
I have gone through and researched all the armies I was interested in, figured out what tactics people use, to my chagrin as every tactic is essentially spamming a single unit, but I ignore those and build a balanced army. Anyways, my friend wants to play Tau, and isn't as good at researching as I am, less patience, and he is interested in build an army consisting primarily of vehicles and battlesuits. Are there any vehicles and battlesuits in particular that would make a list like this viable? We aren't looking to be super competitive, but I want him to have fun, and I don't want him to run a list that will be easily beaten. I mentioned that the Astra Militarum runs a lot of vehicles that are really good, but he likes the Tau a lot, so I am just looking to get some pointers on how people would build a fully vehicle and battlesuit army so I can help him out.

Addendum, he is perfectly willing to run some troops, but not a lot, basically enough to get a battalion going, but since he found out he can just run specialized detachments without any of the 3 primary ones, he is focused on that.

Well, are you interested in running an ONLY vehicle army, or are you willing to run more of a mechanized army (i.e, with some infantry in vehicles)?

A full vehicle/suit army I would imagine would be something like a Tau sept gunline, focusing on Riptides, maybe a Stormsurge, Stealth suits to screen, Hammerheads with Longstrike for your tanks.

A mechanized army, in my opinion would be a lot more fun to play because you would get to bring in some mobile elements and actually contest the board rather than relying on pure firepower to just wipe your opponent. Breacher teams/Pathfinder teams in Devilfish, probably Viorla sept, with the bonkers nasty Viorla commanders and Stealth suits/ghostkeels for some of your heavy hitters would probably be the way to build.

Ion cannon hammerheads in single model units are nice. They get good if you play Sa'Cea and they become really good if you play Longstrike along with them. Unfortunately you can't combine both, because Longstrike buffs only T'au sept units. So you gotta pick.

HRR broadsides with Smart Missiles and a couple of support systems are very nice mainstay units that are good against multiple targets and are quite survivable. Also with Sa'Cea they become VERY strong.

If I were your friend I would run a spearhead detachment (or whatever the Heavy choice detachment is called) with Longstrike as HQ and 3 Ion Hammerheads, all of them with seeker missiles. Then I would add a Sa'Cea battalion with minimum troops (3 units of 5 fire warriors, A commander and a fireblade as your HQ and HRR broadsides in single man units in your heavy. With the spare points I would get piranhas or devilfish (preferably the fishes) with the sole purpose of charging enemy units and halting them to their feet so your gunline can make work on them.

It's perfectly possible to run a mechanised Tau army with no infantry on the board. They even have a HQ hammerhead.

For troops either fire warriors or breachers would work well, mounted in devilfish. If you want a battalion you might try 2x6 breachers in one devilfish and 12 strike squad fire warriors in the other. This is because breachers can only come in units of 10 max. Alternatively, stick 10 breachers in a fish along with darkstrider and maybe a fireblade.

Hammerheads with ion cannons are really quite good, especially if you have longstrike nearby giving them +1 to hit. Their smart missile systems give them a bit of anti-infantry firepower as well.

Ghostkeels, riptides and stormsurges are all decent, though you can probably manage without any of them. The same goes for broadsides.

Stealth suits seem pretty good, especially as blockers to prevent people deep striking at you. It's great that anyone firing plasma at them after deep strike will be at -1 to hit. In cover they are pretty hard to shift, and their guns do stuff too.

There's a lot of debate about how best to provide markerlights for a Tau army - if you even have to. I think they probably are worth having, especially if your hammerheads and devilfish have seeker missiles. The best options to me seem like having a riptide with a drone controller deep striking, accompanieed by a unit of marker drones, or to just have a few characters around the place (fireblades and firesight marksmen) and using stratagems to increase the number of hots they cause.

Commanders are great. Go for 3 detachments, with a commander in each if possible. I'd recommend a battalion, vanguard and spearhead.

Thank you for the information, I couldn't imagine researching another army, I was already into the Death Guard, Adeptus Mechanicus, Adeptus Custodes, and Drukhari. I will compile the information and relay it to my friend and hopefully he can build an army he enjoys playing, that will work.