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I have been thinking of starting a new army recently as I have played two space marine armies now and feel very bored with the aesthetics and play style so I have been looking at different races and armies.
I am very interested by Tau as I like the idea of a battlefield dominated by Mechs and robots however just having a look at their rules and trying to figure out what to get has been very difficult since I have no clue on what does what.
So basically I am looking for advice on what to get for a mech heavy Tau list in terms of what to buy, equip and tactics to use. I am not looking for a super competitive list since I only play with friends for fun.
I'm keen on a suit heavy Tau force myself. Looking at the rules, and the opposition though, as well as advice on here, Tau seem to be better with a lot of dudes, rather than a lot of mechs. Or at least a decent mix of the two. Generally, I've seen people praising Tau lists with tanks more often than those with mechs.
However, you're playing with friends for fun, so anything goes! If you can still get the Tau Battleforce that was released in December, that's what I picked up and it has a nice selection of mech suits. I'm in a similar boat in that I'm not going to be playing too competitively with my friends, so am fine with running a non-optimised list of just what I feel like building and painting. I'm looking to add one each of the larger mechs (Broadside and Riptide, IIRC) so I've a mix of each, and maybe one or two of the little flyers (Piranha?) just because they look cool.
I've got 10 Fire Warriors and will probably pick up a squad of Pathfinders as their rules look useful, but if you're playing with friends, what's best to use in terms of weapons and tactics will depend heavily on who you're playing, and what army composition they've got. It's probably possible to be really cheesy and tailor a list specifically to beat one opponent if you want to, but you may well get stomped by a bunch of others.
For suit heavy, Ghostkeels + Stealth Teams + Commanders + Stormsurge. Add Riptides if you like. Crisis Suit wise, I'd order 3rd party Cyclic Ion Blasters.
Dakka does have White Knights and is also rather infamous for it's Black Knights. A new edition brings out the passionate and not all of them are good at expressing themselves in written form. There have been plenty of hysterical responses from both sides so far. So we descend into pointless bickering with neither side listening to each other. So posting here becomes more masturbation than conversation.
ERJAK wrote: Forcing a 40k player to keep playing 7th is basically a hate crime.
Pretty good example of the tradeoffs here. You’ve got only 7 CP total, almost no infantry, very few drones, and almost no markerlights for your Riptides if you play against any of the many lists that can destroy your Tidewall in one turn. You’ve fit 3 Riptides and 4 Hammerheads into a list, but at what cost?
Galas wrote:Riptides lose value the more you have because the stratagem only applies to one. You don't need the third one. Two is enough.
3 Riptide lists are very much competitive in tournaments though. Only one has branched charge in any given turn, but even without branched charge Riptides are tough, mobile units with a fairly good punch. Also, it’s good to have redundancy in any list because your opponent will always be able to disrupt what you want to do.
I believe Tau mech's are in a good place for the most part and can definitely hold their own in a semi competitive environment.
XV8 Crisis are the losers of this edition, I've only seen them do well as a farsight bomb (big crisis unit using the drop zone clear stratagem) or with cyclic ion blasters.
XV25 Stealth are fairly durable and get to deploy as midfield objective holders and nuisance (run as Sa'cea giving them a fusion blaster will make them more threatening at a slight price hike).
XV95 Ghostkeels are also durable when given a shield gen and bring a bit more firepower than their smaller cousins but are still more of a distraction or tool to muck up your opponent plans by mere presence.
XV88 Broadsides decent but immobile dakka platform. Railguns can grab a velocity tracker, pair of drones and Sa'cea to be fairly independent. Missilsides can roll as 3 man blob with a commander to give them reroll hits and wounds for some nasty alpha. Honestly though I think XV88's usually do just fine in any configuration.
XV104 Riptide back from the dead these guys seem to be doing well as either a single more independent suit making use of the riptide specific stratagem or as group of 2/3. Once you run more than one though it becomes expensive enough that you might as well have a commander run along to give them kauyon for a turn.
XV8/85/86 Commander are the all stars, not the biggest or most expensive suit but brutally effective to the point of being restricted. Coldstars make for fragile but extremely quick and deadly hunters while cheaper configurations are usually used to support bigger suit blobs with kauyon or c&c node.
XV128 Stormsurge... no idea, I've heard they do alright but don't really have experience. Might be wary of new Knights and their toys which wreck big models.
Basics you'll need to round out your army include Firewarriors, your basic grunts with S5 guns that want to be either cheap objetive holders or have some numbers and a Fireblade nearby to lay down a hail of pulse fire. Markerlight sources such as the Fireblade, Fireside Marksmen or Pathfinders which buff the rest of your army and are unique to T'au. Lastly drones; always pack at least a few because they can tank shots for your far more expensive suits keeping them alive to wreak havoc.
As for buying I think the Start collecting is a good value, you need the Firewarriors anyway and the Crisis and be used or turned into Commanders which you'll also want around, the ethereal is up to your taste but can find some use easily enough. Then add suits as needed. Or splurge on the Expansion Battalion Detachment which doesn't strike me as terrible either.
Take with a grain of salt, I'm also still learning/building up my T'au forces.
I love big suits and play them every edition no matter how gimmicky. This one they are quite good.
The Riptide is really strong. One of the better models in the game. Taking multiples will have a large impact on your points though it is worth it.
Ghostkeels are a nice distraction. They are very durable and bothersome to deal with. Not as good as the Riptide but a perfectly adequate unit.
Coldstar Commanders with a bunch of fusion are basically kamikaze character/tank hunter and if they happen to make it through a turn their value will get insane. Very popular.
Y'vahra is expensive but has nice utility. You can make him worth his points.
R'varna just seems incredibly overpriced to me and is just a weak Stormsurge.
Crisis suits are pricey, but have their use. With flamers alone they have similar damage output to a devourer termagants point for point, except with a much nicer overwatch that can be FTGG. So Bodyguards can work overtime to get your coldstars or Farsight alive, and still put a large dent in infantry. Cute unit.
Broadsides are pricey, I wouldn't take many but if you want a single small unit of artillery to shore up some aspect of your list you can consider them.
Stormsurge is pretty nice. You should Support it with multiple lines of speed bump firewarriors, which lends itself to taking more stormsurges, which ends up being a sort of one dimensional list, but I don't know I haven't played them much this edition
Although it's probably not a consideration for any sort of tournament, the Supremacy suit probably goes down a little too easy for a unit that is literally an entire 2k army, but you can probably blow up a lot of threats to it turn 1 and have a ton of fun.
Suit heavy list is pretty viablefor the most right now, but if you plan to take it seriously you'll probably want a good cut of firewarriors next to them no matter what you do. They are the true star of the dex.
