Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Hey all, I've been intrested about Tau for a long time and this year I'm going to build an army of them. But, I only have one game under my belt so far, and so any advice from you more experienced Tau players are appreciated. I'll add some questions and tactics after the list;

Tau Empire Tau Sept Battalion (+5cp)
-HQ- Commander Coldstar (high-output burstcannon, missilepod, shield generator) 129 {warlord: strenght of belief, relic: puretide neurochip}
-HQ- Cadre Fireblade (markerlight) 42
-T- Strike Team (5, markerlight) 38
-T- Strike Team (5, markerlight) 38
-T- Strike Team (5, markerlight) 38
-T- Strike Team (5, markerlight) 38
-E- Riptide (heavy burstcannon, 2x smart missiles, advanced targeting system, velocity tracker) 278
-FA- Pathfinders (5, 5x markerlight, pulse accelerator drone) 48
-FA- Tactical Drones (4x gundrone) 40
-HS- Broadside (heavy rail rifle, 2x smart missiles, velocity tracker) 102

Tau Empire Tau Sept Battalion (+5cp)
-HQ- Commander Shadowsun (command-link drone, 2x shield drone) 138
-HQ- Cadre Fireblade (markerlight) 42
-T- Strike Team (5, markerlight) 38
-T- Strike Team (5, markerlight) 38
-T- Strike Team (5, markerlight) 38
-T- Strike Team (5, markerlight) 38
-E- Riptide (heavy burstcannon, 2x smart missiles, advanced targeting system, velocity tracker) 278
-FA- Pathfinders (5, 5x markerlight, pulse accelerator drone) 48
-FA- Tactical Drones (4x gundrone) 40
-HS- Broadside (heavy rail rifle, 2x smart missiles, velocity tracker) 102

Tau Empire Tau Sept Super Heavy Auxiliary
-LOW- Storm Surge (pulse driver cannon, cluster rockets, 4x destroyer missile, 2x smart missile, 2x burstcannon, shield generator, advanced targeting system, velocity tracker) 409

Tactics: every unit (except commanders and storm surge) deploy into two equally fitted blobs. Drones may deploy elsewhere, to deny enemy deepstrikes. Storm Surge and Riptides may seek for cover at the first turn, if against shooty army. Commander Coldstar is a key player, providing command points and capturing objectives, and being able to avoid sticky situations with incredible movement. Commander Shadowsun provides Kauyon twice per game. Otherwise, plan is to out-shoot the enemy. The tournament does not have Sudden Death rule, and all the missions are from Chapter Approved.

Questions:
- Do I have enough Fire Warriors on the field? (I'd like to add more, but I'm on a tight budget)
- Do I have enough markerlights? These are the main reason I started collecting Tau. The list has 20 of them, and I've planned to get atleast two targets per turn with maximum counters on them.
- Should I make Shadowsun my Warlord?
- Do I have enough command points? By dropping one Riptide, I could fit in battalion+brigade+storm surge, but then again, it does not fit for my wallet :/
- Are two Riptides overkill? I've added them mostly to fill anti-horde/anti-marine - role, and no other unit does that as good.

Thanks!

Consider swapping out all gun drones for all shield drones, to protect broadsides and riptides.

Remove markerlights from firewarriors, and upgrade commander coldstar with a 4th weapon system

consider ethereal, for reroll 1's or FNP on 6's for most of the army.

Are we allowed more than one support system on riptides and/or stormsurge? (I'm still noob, so don't know the answer)

Move puretide engram to HQ choice not likely to ever be targeted by enemy, and/or.... buy additional signature system like vectored thrusters.

To repeat sazzle:
Gotta put the 3rd weapon on the coldstar at least. Missile pod maybe spend the CP on adding a Supernova launcher. Consider dropping the shield gen for a 4th weap. or an ATS if you don't think it'll be exposed to fire much.

Definitely want to scrap the FW's marklerlights - I don't think you'll use them. You've gotta declare the whole unit's shooting so those MLs are tied up in also shooting the rest of the squad at something, you'll probably move the FWs around so it'll be taking a -1 to hit, and you'll be missing out on up to 3 Pulse Rifle shots.

You have pleanty of S5 shooting so no need for gundrones, particularly w/o a drone controller. Shield drones will be great to go with the riptides/broadsides.

Some suff he didn't say:
If you're worried about markerlights I'd suggest trying to fit in firesight marksman.

And depending on how you're planing on playing the riptides a target lock may be more useful on the Riptides than the velocity tracker...You might want the extra mobility...and the VTs on the Broadsides and Stormsurge will probably be enough for flyer duty.

I think most of it's been addressed above. Missile pod is no longer required on coldstar, drones huddle around riptides.

To contrast the above, I like fire warrriors with markerlights in static gunlines or castles, largely because my dice are bad and roll 1s for multiple characters in a row. If you plan to be mobile with the FW it should be dropped, if you want absolute certainty of full lights keep em. Minor thing, not moving infantry can save some time if that's a concern (one reason I like to dig them in, that and laziness).

Tactic wise, keeping everything in one big group will improve overwatch and buff spread for kauyon. Just be sure to have darkstrider so you don't get tied up. That might not be so useful with the new missions so your plan could be fine.

Fireside marksmen are characters so they can be extra helpful on the character scoring missions.

Hey, thanks for advice. Unfortunately, I only have gundrones at the moment, I know that shield drones could be better. As for markerlights, I really like them. I also would like to add ethereals and darkstrider, but i'm not sure where to get points..

If you have already glued the bottom peice that you glue the guns to on your drones, you could cut them apart, get magnets drill holes to insert magnets.. and then you can go both ways via magnetization of the disc part of the drone to the guns part.

Just a thought. Back in 3rd to 5th, the relative advantages of the drones weren't nearly as much of a big as they are today, where you can't really jump shoot jump. So its a strong thought actually.

Hey thanks for the advice. I've magnetized my Crisis suits, but I dont have enough magnets for drones. I've also tried to make the list work so that there is no models meant to just die. And with cadre fireblade, those gun drones can be deadly. Seems like i'm going to the tournament with this list as it is.

In that case, hide your gun drones in LOS blocking terrain that is within 3" of your riptides & broadsides, savior protocol is savior protocol (using it for those lascannon shots that you don't want your battlesuits to suck up).

Drones are meant to die.

So, the tournament is coming soon, and i'll plan to go with this list. Still, a few questions remains;

- should I keep commander coldstar as my warlord, or make shadowsun as a warlord?
- should I swap puretide relic and hide it with cadre fireblade?

Shadowsun has modifier and drones to make her more resilient to damage, but coldstar can achieve objectives..

Shadowsun. The Coldstar is going to be (probably) run aggressively, so unless you can reliably protect him, he could potentially give up easy Warlord points.

Plus I feel not making the Coldstar your Warlord will allow you to use his speed to be max-aggro without giving up the Warlord point.

As a side-note, have you considered running Sa'cea as opposed to the T'au sept? You basically make all your Markerlights on your Fireblades and Strike Teams twin-linked.

Yeah, i'll probably swap my warlord to shadowsun. Thanks for the advice. As for sacea, rerolls are good, but tau sept has more power at overwatch and their stratagem is just too good to be passed.

That's fair. I've gandered thru the Tau book and I'm wholly unimpressed by the Stormsurge, so I would've probably dropped that and bumped all my Markerlights into a third Sa'cea detachment.

Of course, my list would probably look a lot different from yours as well, but that I think comes down to preferred styles of play.

Stormsurge has a different nice, for its points it puts out a lot of firepower. When stabilized, it might have the best output in the codex. Just ... it doesn't want to move... much.

If most of your army is T'au Sept, and you find a way to have all your pathfinders to be Sa'cea Sept. I think you'll be quite happy.

I don't know what your collection is like, but this is probably what I'd run:

Sa'cea Battalion (+5cp)
- HQ // Coldstar Commander (Warlord: Exemplar of the Mont'ka, Relic: PEN-Chip, 4 Fusion Blasters, 2 Shield Drones)
- HQ // Fireblade (Markerlight, 2 Shield Drones)
- T // Strike Team (5, Markerlight, 2 Shield Drones)
- T // Strike Team (5, Markerlight, 2 Shield Drones)
- T // Strike Team (5, Markerlight, 2 Shield Drones)
- F // 10 Shield Drones

Sa'cea Battalion (+5cp)
- HQ // Fireblade (Markerlight, 2 Shield Drones)
- HQ // Fireblade (Markerlight, 2 Shield Drones)
- T // Strike Team (5, Markerlight, 2 Shield Drones)
- T // Strike Team (5, Markerlight, 2 Shield Drones)
- T // Strike Team (5, Markerlight, 2 Shield Drones)

T'au Vanguard (+1cp)
- HQ // Commander Shadowsun
- E // Riptide (Heavy Burst Cannon, 2 SMS, Advanced Targeting System, Velocity Tracker)
- E // Riptide (Heavy Burst Cannon, 2 SMS, Advanced Targeting System, Velocity Tracker)
- E // Riptide (Heavy Burst Cannon, 2 SMS, Advanced Targeting System, Velocity Tracker)
- F // 12 Shield Drones
- F // 12 Shield Drones

Just abuse Savior Protocols, and you'll be able to use the T'au stratagem to buff the Riptides, who will do a lot of heavy lifting.
Fireblades support the Strike Teams, who throw around piddle fire for funsies while Markerlight supporting the Riptides.

OMG I don't even have that many drones period. Do you actually have all those shield drones?

I don't play Tau anymore.

But if I still did, that's about what I'd run.