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Hey guys,

I am looking at starting a 600 point T'au army, since my friends and I play in a 600 point three person Free for All league. Typical line ups in our league feature one or two vehicles, and we don't see overly armored lists. Usually you'll get two or three infantry squads, 1-2 HQ's, an elite and a vehicle. We play with these rules below and if you want to click you can see the type of map we play on:

https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/801635.page

Anyways, I am new to T'au so I'm not sure how much drones I should bring. I figured some shield drones and marker drones so the army doesn't get roasted. I'm thinking castle hard, put up a gun line and when possible send my commander out to cap open points or burst infantry. How much marker lights should I be looking to get? I imagine i'll be looking at two fronts, and deciding to focus fire whatever is most threatening in the turn. I know T'au currently stink, but our league rules are a little different and we play FFA and I usually run Death Guard, and Necrons. Both can be a little OP in these smaller games so I'm not expecting this 3rd army to win hard. Anyways, welcoming all criticism and advice!


++ Patrol Detachment -2CP (T'au Empire) [32 PL, -2CP, 608pts] ++

+ Configuration [-2CP] +

Detachment Command Cost [-2CP]

+ HQ [11 PL, 210pts] +

Cadre Fireblade [3 PL, 45pts]: Markerlight, Photon grenades, Pulse rifle

Commander in XV86 Coldstar Battlesuit [8 PL, 165pts]: High-output burst cannon [15pts], Missile pod [15pts], Shield generator [10pts], Target lock [5pts]

+ Troops [6 PL, 140pts] +

Strike Team [3 PL, 70pts]
. 5x Fire Warrior w/ Pulse Rifle [45pts]: 5x Photon grenades, 5x Pulse rifle
. MV4 Shield Drone [15pts]: Shield generator
. MV7 Marker Drone [10pts]: Markerlight

Strike Team [3 PL, 70pts]
. 5x Fire Warrior w/ Pulse Rifle [45pts]: 5x Photon grenades, 5x Pulse rifle
. MV4 Shield Drone [15pts]: Shield generator
. MV7 Marker Drone [10pts]: Markerlight

+ Elites [8 PL, 143pts] +

Dahyak Grekh [2 PL, 40pts]: Kroot pistol, Kroot rifle

XV25 Stealth Battlesuits [6 PL, 103pts]
. MV4 Shield Drone [15pts]: Shield generator
. MV7 Marker Drone [10pts]: Markerlight
. Stealth Shas'ui w/ Burst Cannon [26pts]: Burst cannon
. Stealth Shas'ui w/ Burst Cannon [26pts]: Burst cannon
. Stealth Shas'ui w/ Burst Cannon [26pts]: Burst cannon

+ Heavy Support [7 PL, 115pts] +

XV88 Broadside Battlesuits [7 PL, 115pts]
. Broadside Shas'ui [5 PL, 80pts]: 2x Smart missile system [10pts], Heavy rail rifle
. MV4 Shield Drone [15pts]: Shield generator
. MV8 Missile Drone [20pts]: Missile pod

++ Total: [32 PL, -2CP, 608pts] ++

Frist off, I gotta say that I love that I see at least a single Kroot in your list. That being said, Grekh is sadly the worst Kroot unit by far to take. (I run a 1000pt all Kroot army and I still don't use him. :( Love him in the lore though.) For only 20 more points you could have 10 carnivores that can pre-game move onto an objective and protect themselves with Hidden Hunters while the rest of your army castles up. For 16 more points, you could have 2 Krootx, giving you a total of 8 T5 wounds and 2 "Missile Pods". Or for 2 more points, 7 hounds giving you 14 Ap-1 attacks in close combat to help you fight off getting charged early.

To answer your actual question, it depends on your Sept. With a table that small, if you're playing Farsight Enclaves, you could probably get away with no markerlights at everything within 12" has +1 markerlight. Otherwise, I'd swap the thee shields for markers. This will take you down to 593, but you need to add 5 points as you MUST take either 2 Missile Drones or none, you can't mix and match them. That brings you back to 598 and gives you enough that you can be sure to get a lock.

That being said, there's another way you could take this. After making the changes above, cut the drones from the fire warrior teams and give your commander 2 shield drones. (You'll want to protect your Coldstar from anti-armor 1 shots.) Speaking of your Coldstar, you already move 20", you don't need the target lock for advancing, especially if your castling. With that loadout, the -1AP from the ATS is WAY better. You'll then have an extra 10 points to play around with, or rather 12 since You'd be at 598. That could give you 7pts for a Fusion Blaster on the Stealth team and upgrade one of the markers to a shield.

However, taking away the 2 drones from the Stealth Team gives you 25 spare points, removing Grekh would be 40 leaving you a spare 65. As noted above, the perfect size for a Carnivore squad if you wanted to go that route. Another option could be Sniper Drones. In both of these, you could add an ATS to your Broadside for 5 points. A Pathfinder team with a pair of rail rifles (this would give you 3 more markerlights too if needed) wopuld also be 65pts. Pathfinders would probably be your best bet for dedicated castling as they give you more markers and are buffed by your Fireblade if you don't need the markers. You could also do something cheeky like give your Broadside a Drone controller to make the missile drones better and take a unit of six gun drones to support him (and savior protocols other units as needed).

The Cadre Fireblade is already a reliable marker light user as he hits on 2+, so you really only need more if you are going to be shooting multiple targets in a turn as getting up to 5 without relying on stratagems is super hard for a 600pt army.

Okay, so that was a lot of rambling, hopefully that made sense and gave you some good ideas. Best of luck!

I really appreciate this reply, you have given me a lot to think about! I'll definitely be replacing Grek with some kroot. That pregame move looks juicy.

Seems like there is a lot to learn with this faction and I need to do some more reading. The 8th edition codex pdf I downloaded is trash so its put me off it. Heard the new 9th edition is coming early 2022 so hopefully T'au get a good boost! There lore is awesome and I'm a fan of the aesthetic.

Tau aren't that bad of an army just on rules for 8th, they play okay. Their weakness if their mobility. 9th is all about objectives and Tau are to slow getting into the midfield to contest, and even if they do, get chopped up in melee. If you can find a way to work around that (one of the reasons I like the single Carnivore Squad), you can still do well. Though in a FFA game so long as they don't focus you, you could sit back, shoot em both up, and then move in.