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So a friend of mine has just gotten into 40K, and he's bought the Start Collecting T'au Empire kit, plus a box of pathfinders. He's specifically requested that we don't "go easy" on him, and build strong lists against him. I'm very unfamiliar with T'au, so I've thrown the below together, not sure how effective it would be against what he'll be bringing to the table (as far as I know, that's a Strike team, pathfinder unit, 3 Crisis battlesuits and an Ethereal?) - please C&C.

HQ: Overlord w/ Staff of Light and Nightmare Shroud

Troops: 5 Immortals w/ Gauss Blasters

Elites: 5 Triarch Praetorians w/ Voidblade and Particle Casters

Heavy Support: Annihilation Barge w/ Twin Tesla Destructor and Gauss Cannon

My idea is that the Annihilation Barge will rip through his fragile infantry like paper while shrugging off most attacks with Quantum Shielding. The Overlord and the Immortals provide a base of fire support, partly to push the Crisis Suits towards the Triarch Praetorians, which will be able to (mostly) keep pace with the Crisis suits and hammer them in melee.

I might well be way off the mark, but at such low points I'm at a slight loss.

Seems solid; the overlord seems a little kitted out to a non-necrons player, whats that loadout cost?

otherwise seems good, I mighta gone with a cryptek instead for HQ as if memory serves they're cheaper? overinvesting is dangerous with so few points to spend?

I'd recommend Tesla immortals if you're bringing an Overlord. Triarch Praetorians won't do too much to crisis suits I'd think. They're faster and he could just bait you with them pretty easily (well your friend is a beginner, so maybe not, but this is what would happen against a veteran). Rather just bring wraiths and rush his lines directly. Replace barge with 3 destroyers and watch the crisis suits melt in a single turn (made easier by going Nephrekh and deep striking them).

Go with overlord, veil of darkness, 9 tesla immortals, 5 destroyers. Destroyers will melt XV8 and fire warriors, if tesla immortals didnt kill them. Only 3 units will give you +1 to initiative, if you deploy first, its a huge advantage is low point games if you get first turn.

 daBIGboss wrote:
I'd recommend Tesla immortals if you're bringing an Overlord. Triarch Praetorians won't do too much to crisis suits I'd think. They're faster and he could just bait you with them pretty easily (well your friend is a beginner, so maybe not, but this is what would happen against a veteran). Rather just bring wraiths and rush his lines directly. Replace barge with 3 destroyers and watch the crisis suits melt in a single turn (made easier by going Nephrekh and deep striking them).

Please explain how XV8 are faster with move 8" than praetorians with move 10".

Looks like a solid build for the opponent you're facing. If you wanna have more fun, take a full 10-man lychguard with shields as nephrek (advance 6' through terrain and minis), accompanied by an overlord with an orb (maybe the relic orb). 1st turn you advance 11', use the strat on your opponent's turn, then RP should replenish most deaths. 2nd turn charge with MWBD and the re-roll charges trait for the overlord. I run this combo all the time and have had some success in friendly games. For bigger games I sometimes take the veil relic or use the nephrek strat for deepstriking.

Well, at small pt levels the Lanchester square law comes in.
Doubling the number of tanks requires to fourfold the enemy firepower. But at the 500 pt level, I dont know.
Your list is too fragile. I'd squeeze in as many Warriors as you can.

 wuestenfux wrote:
Well, at small pt levels the Lanchester square law comes in.
Doubling the number of tanks requires to fourfold the enemy firepower. But at the 500 pt level, I dont know.
Your list is too fragile. I'd squeeze in as many Warriors as you can.

So do you think it'd be more survivable if I took, say, a lord and two units of 17 warriors each? That'd be about 493 points by my guess

Scarey Nerd wrote:

 wuestenfux wrote:
Well, at small pt levels the Lanchester square law comes in.
Doubling the number of tanks requires to fourfold the enemy firepower. But at the 500 pt level, I dont know.
Your list is too fragile. I'd squeeze in as many Warriors as you can.

So do you think it'd be more survivable if I took, say, a lord and two units of 17 warriors each? That'd be about 493 points by my guess

I guess so. But you need to get into range rather quickly.