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Keep in mind that you'll have to establish fire superiority very early on as well. If your firewarriors become pinned, flee, tank shocked, locked in combat, or have to move for a better position, the markerlight cannot be used. This means you'll have to stay as stationary as possible to get the most out of your markerlights. 6th edition shooting has made shooting units better because they can fire while they move. The markerlight is essentially forcing your firewarriors to keep pretending they are in 5th edition.

When you make your move for objectives your firepower will decrease as your markerlight support disappears. Granted, these are only single BS3 markerlights you are giving up, but they are the majority of your markerlight support, especially if you've lost a few FW squads over the course of the game (highly likely, as they are your only scoring unit)

I have another proposition for you. What about SDT's? Take out your stealth marker team and you have enough points for 3 SDT's. That is 3 markerlights (same as stealth team) at BS4, in 3 seperate units, that can fire at different targets than the rest of their unit, the rest of the unit's guns will be effective at markerlight range, AND it's networked so the sniper drones can benefit as well. They are survivable in cover (especially an Aegis) and scoring units in Big Guns Never Tire. They are less mobile, but your list isn't built to be especially mobile anyways. The major issue with SDT's is their low AP rail rifles will make them higher priority targets for MEQ's, the 3 seperate units will help with that.

I understand that the ML's hinder the FW's movement, and that they would not all be firing even in the first turn or two, and that as they get eliminated the strength there would fade. You face the same problem with PF's though. Unless I am mistaken, the 6th edition rules allow you to snap fire the markerlights, so I see that as an improvement over 5th. I really like the idea of the SDT's. The more I was looking at the stealth suit teams, the more I was getting concerned that they were too much of a points sink. I think that if I was going to run stealth suits I would rather have them as a dedicated harassment unit. Including the SDT's makes it so that the hammerheads are out, and I am a little concerned that without them this list is missing enough hard hitting units. Hmm, what about something like this:

HQ:
Helios Shas'O
Ethereal
6x Honour Guard: Shas'ui w/ TL and ML

ELITE:
2x Helios Suits
3x Deathrain Suits
3x Stealth Suits: Shas'ui w/ Fusion Blaster and TL, maxed gun drones

TROOPS:
6x 6 FW Teams: Shas'ui w/ TL and ML

HEAVY:
2x 2 Broadsides w/ PR
3x SDT

I could probably even squeeze in some more suits at 1500 points, and definitely more at 1850. Maybe make one of the broadside teams 3 members strong, and strengthen the stealth team. That would be a total of 10 markerlights that can fire at up to 10 different targets. The SDT's fill the gap of having a more stable source of ML's, and having access to additional MEQ killing power is always great. I will have to run numbers on all of this, but I think that it is an interesting strategy.

The obvious, and major, drawback to the SDT is the cost. 240 points would buy an awful lot of suits, or more warriors, and ultimately you are getting a total of 9 s6 ap3 shots and three markerlights.

However remember that you move models now not units, so you can move everyone in the unit except the marker light provided they meet all the other restrictions.

Wow this actually looks like one of the most solid mono tau list ive seen on the internet. I was skeptical at 1st glance because I haven't had much luck with markers on the FW squads but putting them in 6x6 FW squads seems like a decent way to protect your MLs and allows even distribution to different key targets. The only real downside i can see to this is it will draw MORE aggro to your troops, which on second though may actually make this a poor decision. From my experience getting the enemy to ignore your fragile troops is pretty key to winning games. Let us know how it runs though yeah?

Personally I would take even MORE plasmasides and drop the SDTs but I haven't tried them since 6th. Split fire AP3 pins might be useful vs certain armys and the BS4 MLs seems like a good deal for 80 pts. Personally I would leave the helios as a montat. There are a lot of variables in them performing the way they should but it really only takes one to shred somthing. Addtitionally two suits are not really gonna survive any longer than 1 suit. Most things that will shoot at the montat will overshoot and waste firepower. Maybe consider a second helios HQ and throw em in the stealth suit squad?

Like i said before though its a pretty solid list. Personally I run my tau with allies every game now but i'm tempted to run this one.

I have been taking iridium armor for my Commander shas'el and have been really loving it. Yes you are gimped with your fall back move but really I don't see that as being all that horrible because with iridium armor and shield drones the unit takes a whole lot of firepower to do a dent (think of all those times you haven't been able to kill a terminator squad) Anyway, I always run them with the shield drones infront and my commander in back because he is my HQ and I want to protect him. But I am thinking of putting him in front in a formation like this:


Assuming I am not going up against ap1/2 s8+ guns that will kill my commander in one shot I think this is a good formation. Basically all the shots his the commander, but if there is an ap1/2 I can look-out sir on the drones or on a regular suit who has two wounds. My commander has 2+ save with 3 wounds so he is going to need a lot of shots before dying and once he gets to his last wound I can look out sire and then move him to the back the next turn. By putting the commander in the front I can allocate wounds how I see fit increasing the longevity of the squad. Is it too risky to put my commander out in the open like that or does this seem better because if I do get a failed wound I would rather have it on the commander who has 3 than a shield drone who has one. I could even take stimulant injections for fnp so it is less likely he will die.

Thoughts?

Also what do you guys think of giving sensor spines to a devil fish and then have that devil fish flat out onto the other side and then move into an unoccupied building? In ruins the fish gets a 2+ cover save and the gun drones can pop off on the last turn for line breaker.

 lambsandlions wrote:
*SNIP*

Assuming I am not going up against ap1/2 s8+ guns that will kill my commander in one shot I think this is a good formation. Basically all the shots his the commander, but if there is an ap1/2 I can look-out sir on the drones or on a regular suit who has two wounds. My commander has 2+ save with 3 wounds so he is going to need a lot of shots before dying and once he gets to his last wound I can look out sire and then move him to the back the next turn. By putting the commander in the front I can allocate wounds how I see fit increasing the longevity of the squad. Is it too risky to put my commander out in the open like that or does this seem better because if I do get a failed wound I would rather have it on the commander who has 3 than a shield drone who has one. I could even take stimulant injections for fnp so it is less likely he will die.

Thoughts?

Also what do you guys think of giving sensor spines to a devil fish and then have that devil fish flat out onto the other side and then move into an unoccupied building? In ruins the fish gets a 2+ cover save and the gun drones can pop off on the last turn for line breaker.

You may want to keep in mind that wound allocation has been changed via FAQ from what is in the rulebook. LOS can now only transfer wounds to the closest model (with no RAW resolution for what to do if multiple models are closest) Our group usually plays it that if you have 2 at the exact same distance, then and only then can you chose where the wound goes. That being said the formation you have suggested will keep the squad alive for quite a time.

As to the devilfish, sensor spines and and disruption pods on a fish isn't a bad way to get linebreaker, Keep in mind that the fish doesn't need to be in ruins to get the cover save, he just needs the ruins to be between the firing model and the tank. I would suggest either keeping it cheap with the 85pt "Dumbfish" with only the D-pods, or Going whole hog and setting it up "Warfish" Style (Smart Missile, Targetting Array, Multi-Tracker, Disruption Pods and other toys to Taste) I would only reccomend the warfish if you don't have more firewarriors. The price difference between the Dumbfish and Warfish can be around 50-60pts depending on options. You can take a squad of firewarriors for not much more than that.

Let me ask what may seem like a dumb question since I am only about 3 months in to (slowly) building my Tau army, but if you run a commander and shield drones behind 2 XV8 suits, why wouldn't you make them part of a body guard team, then give each model 2 shield drones to run a 3 suit squad wrapped in 6 shield drones? Is that too much of a points cost wrapped up in 1 unit? Or am I missing some other part of strategy that hasn't become apparent to me yet?

To further clarify where my army stands, I am just now finally butting up to about 2000 points total in built models with 24 Fire Warriors left to build and paint and a Hammerhead to finish assembling. It has been very interesting reading this thread and other Tau to get a better grasp of how to best use the Tau. Thanks!

hokieseas wrote:
Let me ask what may seem like a dumb question since I am only about 3 months in to (slowly) building my Tau army, but if you run a commander and shield drones behind 2 XV8 suits, why wouldn't you make them part of a body guard team, then give each model 2 shield drones to run a 3 suit squad wrapped in 6 shield drones? Is that too much of a points cost wrapped up in 1 unit? Or am I missing some other part of strategy that hasn't become apparent to me yet?

To further clarify where my army stands, I am just now finally butting up to about 2000 points total in built models with 24 Fire Warriors left to build and paint and a Hammerhead to finish assembling. It has been very interesting reading this thread and other Tau to get a better grasp of how to best use the Tau. Thanks!

A crisis squad with 6 shield drones is paying 60pts those drones. That is way too much. The bodyguard is ok, but keep in mind that bodyguards are 10pts more expensive than regular suits.

Btw I hope you have more than 24 firewarriors. My army runs 36, and I feel like I am still short on troops.

Just remember that bodyguards remove his independent character status and change his LOS roll.

And you're probably always going to feel like you're short on troops because FW are very under performing. I've given up on FW and started using allies to get me two decent troops.

I'm with savage on the FW, your better off running your Tau with a small allied contingent to get some better survivable troops.
Right now I'm trying DA with Tau, seems to be working so far and I get nice options with making bikes or termies troops

hokieseas wrote:
Let me ask what may seem like a dumb question since I am only about 3 months in to (slowly) building my Tau army, but if you run a commander and shield drones behind 2 XV8 suits, why wouldn't you make them part of a body guard team, then give each model 2 shield drones to run a 3 suit squad wrapped in 6 shield drones? Is that too much of a points cost wrapped up in 1 unit? Or am I missing some other part of strategy that hasn't become apparent to me yet?

To further clarify where my army stands, I am just now finally butting up to about 2000 points total in built models with 24 Fire Warriors left to build and paint and a Hammerhead to finish assembling. It has been very interesting reading this thread and other Tau to get a better grasp of how to best use the Tau. Thanks!

The main problem I have with 3 suits and 6 shield drones is the footprint of the unit. These all have big bases and it is very hard to jump back and hide in cover when you have a bunch of bulky drone models.

That and it would draw too much attention. I like to spread suits out as evenly as possible so it makes it less obvious which one should be shot at first, and even encourages my opponent to spread out his fire.

 Thaylen wrote:

A crisis squad with 6 shield drones is paying 60pts those drones. That is way too much. The bodyguard is ok, but keep in mind that bodyguards are 10pts more expensive than regular suits.

Btw I hope you have more than 24 firewarriors. My army runs 36, and I feel like I am still short on troops.

I will probably cut back on the shield drones once I have more troops and options to fill out my points.

What I currently have is a combination of the original Tau Battleforce box from 3rd edition (I think it was) and the current Battleforce box which I got this past Christmas, and then other things I have bought or have been given.

That being said, if I can remember correctly, what I have is:

4 XV8 Crisis Suits, 1 which I use as a commander
3 XV25 Stealth Suits w/ 2 Marker Light Drones
1 Ethereal (given as a xmas gift, have never used in a game yet)
24 Fire Warriors
24 Kroot
1 Piranha
6 Pathfinders
1 Devilfish
1 Broadside Suit
1 Sniper Drone Team
20 or so Gun Drones (some of which I proxy as my shield drones)

What I have left to finish:

1 Hammerhead tank
24 Fire Warriors
1 XV8 Crisis Suit, missing parts which I am going to convert to a second Broadside suit

So, it is slow going building up my army options to pull from. I have started looking around at building some ally squads just to give me something else to paint and build, but have not decided what to do yet.

Anyways, thanks for all the information in here. Enjoying it.

Do you mean you're missing the Broadside bit pack on the last XV-8?

Personally I hate the look of the current Broadside. Paulson Games has some really good weapons bits if you don't want the conversion kit.

I'd probably hold off buying anything else though. We're supposed to be seeing a new set come out in only a month or so.

With what you currently have available I suggest sticking to 1K and less lists. Trying anything higher and you're stretching things out a bit too much.

 Savageconvoy wrote:
Do you mean you're missing the Broadside bit pack on the last XV-8?

No, it is an unassembled Crisis Suit model. It was given to me by a friend who found some Tau bits in a box of something else he bought from a guy. My plan is to buy the Broadside upgrade bits when I get the chance. Which is how I have my 1 current Broadside. A friend bought a box of something else, and found a Crisis Suit with no feet and no weapons on it in the bottom of the box, so I bought the upgrade kit for that one.