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Pretty new to Tau. I've been wanting to do a battle suit heavy army as a contrast to my other armies play. Wants something that moves around pretty quick and has a lot of firepower. This is an army I'm toying around with. How to make it better?

T'au battalion - T'au Sept
Fireblade
Dark strider

Fire warriors x5, 2x marker drone
Fire warriors x5, 2x marker drone
Fire warriors x5, 2x marker drone

3x missile broadsides

Vanguard - T'au Sept
Crisis battlesuit commander, 4x cyclic ion blaster, advanced targeting, iridium battlesuit

Firesight marksman
Firesight marksman
Firesight marksman

Vanguard - T'au Sept
Shadowsun -2x shield drones

3x crisis suits - 3x cyclic ion blaster ea
Riptide - heavy burst, missiles, advanced target, target lock
6x stealth suit - 6x burst cannon
Ghostkeel - cyclic ion raker, burst cannons, target lock

Fast attack
11x shield drones

Well, tau has traditionally alot of firepower, if youre willing, my suggestion is to include 3x riptide (2 with heavy burst cannon), that's enough to counter hordes and vehicles. I suggest also dropping the broadsides, they only work when equipped with heavy rail rifle, and they dont actually want to move around. Note that battlesuit commander can only have 4x weapon/system. Ghostkeel is good with your load-out, but I still recommend riptide (*3).

Well my broadsides are magnetized, so can switch to rails.

Thanks for the catch on the commander

Depending on you local gaming store.. If youre casual.. no one will want to play against 3 riptides. Competitive its fine and I don't really agree with the first comment about missilesides.. 3 of them and command and control node can be devastating and taking into account they can move and still fire at full B with 4 markerlights.

So for a fast mobile T'au list for casual play I would look into Devilfish and Hammerheads and the Flyer Bombers.
Competitive play. Triple Riptides can move across the board pretty fast if needed.

Are there any systems people tack into broadsides? I could see improving their ap by one being useful, or improving hit v fly.

I played with heavy rail rifle and velocity tracker, and that proved useful against mortarion etc. Now, dont get me wrong, the broadsides with missile are very good also, but riptide with ion accelerator does more reliable anti tank shooting.

Usually in 8th edition you run the broadsides with high yeild missiles and advanced targeting system. While the railrifles are slightly more effective against T8 targets, the misslepods with ATS are more effective against all other targets and hordes.

And you'll find that with the riptides while the ion accelerator is nice, the heavy burst cannon does more damage against all target types, including sadly vehicles.

Broadsides generally for the points deal more damage than riptides, however, they are not nearly as mobile as the riptide and you need mobility.

For advice, if you are running shadowsun, take her 6pt command link drone. Any battle-suit that can take an advanced targeting system... should take it. I don't see anything with a drone controller, without it, your marker drones only hit on 5's instead of 4's. Any one battle suit that can take multiple support systems.. their 2nd support system should be a drone controller if you are using marker drones.

Play a few games, figure out what you like, what works and what does not. The best way to learn the game is to lose a few and learn from that experience. So have fun, don't worry about winning.

What are some of the better units to take a drone controller?

 Smotejob wrote:
What are some of the better units to take a drone controller?

A unit that the drones are baby sitting :-)

I tend to put my drone controllers on the following:

> Semi naked Comander which I would use to Montka/kauyon & Comand and control Node (Comander + shield generator + Drone controller + 2x Missille pods)
> Railsides (not the most competitive choice, but I like their look and while they can get good benefit from velocity tracker, no system is imperative on them)
> Stealth suits ( which now are if I am not wrong our cheapest option to take it at 71p and dont really need any other support system)

Ok. I revised my list

Battalion
Shadowsun
Dark strider

3x5 fire warriors, marker light

3x stealth suit, marker light, advanced Target
3x stealth suit, marker light, advanced target

5x Pathfinder
7x shield drone + 3x marker drone
7x shield drone + 3x market drone

3x broadsides, missiles and smart missiles, advanced targeting

Vanguard
Enforcer battlesuit commander, 3x missile, drone controller

3x crisis suit, 3x ion blasters ea

Ghostkeel, cyclic ion, burst cannons, advanced targeting, velocity tracking

Riptide - h. burst cannon, smarty missile system, advanced targeting

Vanguard
Fireblade
3x fire sight Marksman

Move the drone controller to the riptide, its allowed a 2nd support system. And give the enforcer an ATS.

You have slight overkill on markerlights. Maybe add seeker missiles to the broadsides by shaving a few points from markerlights.

Definatley play the list, it looks fun