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Hello dakka community. Took a couple months off from playing 40k. Getting back into playing would like thoughts on this list. its my first take on tau in 8th edition. played a couple games and have won them all at my LGS. but i feel like my opponents lost the game rather than i won it.

battalion
fireblade
coldstar 4 fusion

tau strike * 4, shas'ui
tau strike * 4, shas'ui
tau strike * 4, shas'ui

pathfinders * 4 shas'ui
pathfinders * 4 shas'ui
marker drones *4

Hammerhead Ion 2 gun drones
hammerhead Ion 2 gun drones
broadside rail rifle plasma velocity tracker drone controller

Battalion
Commander 4 fusion
ethereal

tau strike * 4, shas'ui
tau strike * 4, shas'ui
tau strike * 4, shas'ui

Vanguard
Longstrike Railgun SMS
Coldstar Heavy burst cannon burst cannon *2 ATS

Stealth team *3
stealth team *3
Riptide heavy burst cannon. 2 SMS ATS velocity tracker


14 command points. ethereal is my warlord. with Purtide Engram chip. warlord trait is through unity devastation. normally take the extar relic tau specific Vectored manouvered thrusters on one of my kamikaze coldstars. i normally wait until turn 2-3 to move out with my coldstars, waiting for my opponent to thin his lines, that way they can survive and objective contest later in the game. ionly have one riptide. i would replace the hammerheads with riptide if i could but i am making the most out of what i have. i know im thin on drones, but since i have 500 points in tanks ( and opponents need to kill longstrike) i felt that a just a couple marker drones filled the role and keeps my riptide alive for a little longer. velocity tracker is a msu too many flying nits in my meta dont normally move my riptide that much anyway. love this list never had so many command points feels great never running out.

Hey there, list is looking pretty decent. Is your warlord longstrike, because if he is, he has to take strenght of belief trait? Also, if youre playing tau sept, they are going to burn alot of command points, a brigade+battalion offers 20 command points, so you can use their stratagem for six turns.

3rd Coldstar loadout is not allowed. In the FAQ, it was stated that if you take the HOBC you have to keep the missile pod that goes with it. Otherwise, you will just have to take 3 burst cannons and the ATS.

 Spreelock wrote:
Hey there, list is looking pretty decent. Is your warlord longstrike, because if he is, he has to take strenght of belief trait? Also, if youre playing tau sept, they are going to burn alot of command points, a brigade+battalion offers 20 command points, so you can use their stratagem for six turns.

ethereal is my warlord. coldstars are suicide units. they dont have the surviveabilty to withstand a counter attack. i think the mont'ka trait on a coldstar has great potential, but i dont want to give my opponent a free victory point. if a cold star was my warlord i probably be even more careful with them then i already am . longstrike being my warlord is not ideal either. his trait sucks, he is a must kill tank, and turn one he is either killed or severely hurt. (i have not gone first yet ). but he allows my riptide to live an extra turn by soaking up that damage. i want to place my warlord in the middle of my gun line make them come and get him. as far as the battalion and brigade, i thought about it at first, but i think the best unit for the tau is the coldstar. the movement and the threat to snipe key characters and vehicles make my opponents respect that threat. although i may try it out just to have the experience. those 7 more command points could be worth more than a commander. ( it would be 6 because I lose a command point from the vanguard)

gseed2p wrote:
3rd Coldstar loadout is not allowed. In the FAQ, it was stated that if you take the HOBC you have to keep the missile pod that goes with it. Otherwise, you will just have to take 3 burst cannons and the ATS.

thankyou very much. i forgot to read the errata. i will have to take a look to see if i have the points and min max from there. (thats the only reason hes not another 4 fusion). anything that works on battlescribe i just assume is right. i dont think i got a notification on the app saying what i did was wrong. i do agree that the wording of the rules in the errata make that loadout illegal.




Automatically Appended Next Post:
so I looked at my battle scribe and I did miss the notification saying I needed to include a missile pod. that's my fault and ill let people I know that I played it wrong.
I am trying to have a coldstar with CIBs but on battle scribe it is not an option. I can take then on an enforcer commander but not a coldstar. I just re read all the errata, and my codex, couldn't find it. can someone tell me where I could find the rules on that?

idecieded to go to a RTT and catch a few games and see the more competitive meta than at my LGS. This was the list i took. i went 2-3 and took 6th out of 18 people. i was very pleased with how i did. I had 2 of the most fun/best games I ever played at this tournament. very happy I went. i forgot alot of rules and made many tactical mistakes but that comes with playing the game and making them so you can learn from them.

battalion
fireblade
coldstar 4 fusion

tau strike * 4, shas'ui
tau strike * 4, shas'ui
tau strike * 4, shas'ui

pathfinders * 4 shas'ui
pathfinders * 4 shas'ui
marker drones *4

Hammerhead Ion 2 gun drones
hammerhead Ion 2 gun drones
broadside rail rifle plasma drone controller

Battalion

Commander 4 fusion
ethereal equalizers

tau strike * 4, shas'ui
tau strike * 4, shas'ui
tau strike * 4, shas'ui

Vanguard
Longstrike Railgun SMS
Enforcer 3 CIBs ats

Stealth team *3
stealth team *3
Riptide heavy burst cannon. 2 SMS ATS velocity tracker

Things i learned: Be agressive with the fire warrior gunline. getting them into triple tap range with a fire blade is scary. the tau sept strategem +1 to wound rolls makes any fire warrior squad an instant threat. you want to get charged just not all at once. rush forward and make them move you off an objective rather than sitting back in a gun line. be mobile
Try to keep the cold stars alive. they won me a game with their insane movement. Its hard not to commit the coldstars. sometimes you need to though thats why they are not the warlord.
turn one either longstrike or the riptide is going to die. if i had a choice i would prefer the riptide to be a distraction carnifex (only because it has an invul). smart players ignored the ripide and killed all the hammerheads first
stopping deep strikes is not as critical as it was in the past, my stealth teams were my least valueable unit.
i forgot to use my warlord trait every game i need to work on that. ( or pick a better one )
drones disembarking from my hammerheads kept my back field safe from plasma scions, was slightly clutch
Meta is very knight focused and i dont quite know how to combat that with the models i have. i am thinking less hammerheads more rail broad sides, but idk.
tau is not very competitive but than again its more than GK (which is my other army )

Your experience and conclusions is about wjat I would have guessed, personally I would change up a few things but unfortunately Tau are in a balanced against mono faction lists place when the meta is all soup and Really strong/OP units.

I don't think hammerheads are good enough to carry a list, long strike makes them good but is way too easy to just delete Turn 1 tau need so many drops you tend to go second and can't hide all your army for LOS so going second hurts.

Giving people two Tau sept riptides who can also benifit from the +1 to wound strategum can be huge at forcing peoples target priority.

Pathfinders are not the best source of markerlights, Fireblades and firesight marksmen are the better options along with the uplinked strategum.

Tau will usually be out of CP's by turn 2 usually, at which point you've broken your opponents army or your probably losing.

Ice_can wrote:
Your experience and conclusions is about wjat I would have guessed, personally I would change up a few things but unfortunately Tau are in a balanced against mono faction lists place when the meta is all soup and Really strong/OP units.

I don't think hammerheads are good enough to carry a list, long strike makes them good but is way too easy to just delete Turn 1 tau need so many drops you tend to go second and can't hide all your army for LOS so going second hurts.

Giving people two Tau sept riptides who can also benifit from the +1 to wound strategum can be huge at forcing peoples target priority.

Pathfinders are not the best source of markerlights, Fireblades and firesight marksmen are the better options along with the uplinked strategum.

Tau will usually be out of CP's by turn 2 usually, at which point you've broken your opponents army or your probably losing.

I agree that the hammerheads are not OP and therefor are lacking. I don't have a second riptide otherwise I would play it. I wasn't impressed with the one riptide, was vs at least one knight every game and it never did the statistical amount of damage. one game it was a huge distraction soaking up 3 turns of all anti tank fire surviving on one wound very happy with how that game went. but that game I was rolling hot
going second has its perks, and i think its going second won me the games, the one game i lost i went first and failed to cripple my opponent
pathfinders are not the best, but what im thinking of doing is keeping them on the flanks that allow for a buffer between enemies for my coldstars to have some character protection, and to be honest i would rather they shoot at the pathfinders than my fire warriors
i did run out of cps very early, very true, and i agree with tau you either win or lose by turn 3 (one game i came back only because coldstars were able to stay alive)
any advice vs knights? it was had not to commit a coldstar, and not have more than one turn of shooting vs them
thanks for the input

As a tau player and building knights the simplest solution to knights is just remove their OB sec and keep yours alive and win on objectives. Maybe an IA riptide but really I'm not convinced it's going to do better than just getting those Markerlights get a wound and pop that Tau sept Focus Fire strategum again and again. A riptide or two against a focused unit will chew through alot. Two Tau sept Nova HBC with Focus fire will do a lot of work as it's only 12 failed saves to kill a knight and your pumping out 30 shots from 2+, 3++ platforms with 5 markerlights and the strat thats easily possible.

Also rail rifle broadsides with out of LOS shield drones can be very tanky.
Personally I'm using a slightly odd build thats not optimised but I use the MSU firewarriors to fish for that startign wound if I need it as I'm mixing Tau spet and Borkan.

I do not like the idea of the IA riptide its very situational. but if it has the tau focus fire, it does mean it wounds on 2+.
With marker light support and focus fire
1HBC vs a 4++ does 6 wounds
1 IA vs 4++ does 5 wounds
I think I did my math right. but even vs a t8 model the HBC does more wounds on average
with kauyon
HBC vs 4++ 8 wounds
IA vs 4++ 6.66 wounds

I was out of practice playing new tournament missions. after the game the knight player said I should the only thing I should have done different was rush forward with my fire warriors and obsec it. but that comes with experience
I would fish for a wound with a unit hoping to get one or bait him into using ion shields on a knight that I wasn't planning on focusing. he just rolled very well most of the game and with Taranis and 19 command points every knight I killed would just get back up. was a tough match up for me

I will be trying out a no hammerhead list in the future. running more drones, broadsides and another riptide. maybe a yavara. but I am playing 40k economically (as best I can) and playing with what I got, and trying to be as competitive as I can with what I got. which is always a hard task for this hobby. thanks for the input ice_can I will be play testing, my LGS doesn't have the most competitive players but I will be trying out several different variations with your suggestions.

If Marines get some love in CA a Y'varha might be more worth while I'm running one currently but for its points I could be running a double HBC tigershark which is just better, a Y'varha is about 50 points more than it should be right now.
But it is a nice counter to - to hit but a tigershark is next on my tau shoping list along with a Knight styrix for my 2k knight list.