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I was contemplating the usefulness or uselessness of having 72 firewarriors in my lists. I like the idea of having all of those shots but am not sure if it viable in a 2k list? Your thoughts?

If you are playing a static strategy I would hate to be the one advancing on your position!

A couple of Drop Pods + Libbies with FOTD disembarking on the side *opposite* the FW.

Boo!

Heck, you don't even need that to ruin this army's day. Heavy bolters at 36" range. Whirlwinds, anything with a large blast template, and autocannons all can put the hurt on these units fast enough to cause issues.

Most HBs don't come in dev squads, so if your out of bolter range (and plasma) that means you trading shots with a 5 meq wound HB that costs 100pts, its pretty even pt for pt if your out of cover, get in cover though and you have the upper hand.

Not that your getting 72 FWs in cover outside cityfight, even then I would want the barracades strategem to bring your own cover just in case

At 1500pts 6 is enough.

If you can win a game with 60 (or 120) static pulse rifle shots your facing Orks/Tyranids/IG on an open field, get some terrain and play 40k instead.

Someone brought a 60 firewarrior list to GT Heat 2 last year. He scored less than 20/120 points IIRC.

Just far to many occasions when you would get slaughtered. In a few games, yea it would work well, but face the wrong (most of them) list, and your done for.

Competative tau lists field either 6-12 or 30-36(mech tau). I usually field 36 (in devilfish) and went 5-0-1 across the stretch of two tournaments (won both of em) using 36 (in devilfish). 30 (in devilfish) is more efficient.

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Ditto what everyone else is saying. Also... you want to paint that much?

Honestly, I did this for awhile in 3rd ed when i was trying list variants. I ended up with 36 warriors. Tau are just so.... lopsided when you try to do this. LOTS of str 5, not enough of everything else.

But hell, try it. If nothing else grab an ethereal and have 72 guys with 2 squads of pathfinders to mark for you. Make sure you are playing templars and watch them hit a squad, break them, then get mowed down like grain. This tactic isn't going to work for hard core copentitve play, but it works fine for a little while.

All tau eventually go mech or hybrid.

Two mounted squads have usually been enough for me. More than that just tends to cut into the rest of the list. I'm still tinkering around with squad sizes and Fish loadouts, though. Ideally, the squads would be 10-12 with a Smartfish, but that doesn't always fit in during list-writing.

I once played with 72 FWs in 3rd, now I play with 6. They're simply too many units out there who can seriously mess up such a set-up.