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I'm just starting a Tau army but i don't really like how expensive and boxy looking all the suit models are, so the army won't have any in (except the commander), i also want the units in the list to be ones which will be unlikely to be replaced when a new codex eventually come out. All C&C welcome, ty.

HQ

Shas'o- 145
- Plasma rifle
- Fusion blaster
- Multitracker
- HW Blacksun filter
- HW Drone controller
- 2 Sheild drones

Troops

12 Firewarriors- 220
- Shas'ui
- Bonding knife
- Devilfish, Disruption pod

12 Firewarriors- 215
- Shas'ui
- Devilfish, Disruption pod

12 Firewarriors- 130
- Shas'ui

12 Firewarriors- 130
- Shas'ui

Fast Attack

Piranha- 75
- Fusion blaster
- Targeting array
- Disruption pod

Piranha- 75
- Fusion blaster
- Targeting array
- Disruption pod

Heavy support

Hammerhead gunship- 175
- Railgun
- Burst cannons
- Disruption pod
- Multitracker
-Target lock
- Blacksun filter

Hammerhead gunship- 175
- Railgun
- Burst cannons
- Disruption pod
- Multitracker
-Target lock
- Blacksun filter

2 Sniper drone teams- 160

Total= 1499

I'd take a unit champion in each fire warrior squad, it's worth it to have the Ld 8 instead of 7. It prevents your guys running away as much.

My regular tau opponent plays with orc allies, having 60 boys and a warboss standing between me and his gun line is a big problem.

Take an aegis defence line, it lets you deal with fliers, is cheap and you can fall back if your opponent starts to get too close at which point he has to make DT tests.

Take more fire warriors, they are awesome! As many as you can.

Deploy your boss in a unit of fire warriors for added survivability vs shooting.

Take the forge world flying marker light vehicles instead of pathfinders. They get a 3+ cover save and zip around marker lighting stuff with way more manuverability.

Not a big fan of sniper drones. Are you adverse to stealth teams? Second the fireteam leader idea too.

If you not against getting flyers I would suggest the Barracuda? 130 points for a flyer with a Ion cannon, two sponson-mounted burst cannons and a twin linked missile pod.

The only downside to them is the FW price but then again there are sits out there that do them for quite a bit cheaper.

HansGruber wrote:
If you not against getting flyers I would suggest the Barracuda? 130 points for a flyer with a Ion cannon, two sponson-mounted burst cannons and a twin linked missile pod.

The only downside to them is the FW price but then again there are sits out there that do them for quite a bit cheaper.

What sites are those? The price is the only that has kept Tau flyers out if my list.

Two things:

a. Have the 3 piranhas split into a single and pair. The reason being the usual MSU strategy.
b. 36 FWs into four groups, not three, more MSU, but also, tau need a troop per 500 points, plus another.

 rogersss wrote:

Shas'o- 162
- Plasma rifle
- Missile pod
- Iridium armor
- HW Multitracker
- HW Drone controller
- 2 Sheild drones

No suits...

You are forced by the codex to take at least one commander as the ethereals do not count as your mandatory HQ. He knows that and has stated it in the opening post...

To the OP: I'm not sold on the sniper drones at all. It's right that you lack weapons with good ap without the suits but even with the drones you will struggle against termis and other 2+ saves. One option (surely not the best one) would be to drown them in dices. So I would get more firewarriors and shas'uis-upgrades instead of the drones. If you have points to spare after this you can consider some Blacksunfilters first on the Hammerheads and after this on everything else.

Drop the Pathfinders for tetras with TA. If its just because of the way they look, maybe take a look at the forge world versions, much nicer or ever convert the XV9's, i personally use the XV89 for my crisis suits. expensive but worth it. If you still dont like the Crisis then i would highly recommend Stealth suits. 2 teams of 6 with 2 FB and some drones. JSJ is one of the Taus main strengths and will really help you to pin down your opponent.

Drop those Sniper Drone Squads. Never works out well!

at 1500 points this list is lacking a lot.

The only source of anti-tank weaponry is the Piranhas and the Hammerhead. Both of which are expensive and underperform. I only use the Hammerhead for the template, since a single shot rarely takes down anything. and Piranha are very vulnerable to infantry weapons. They get a good save, but it's too risky for this to be your main source of anti-tank firepower.

Firewarriors are good, until they get shot at. They take wounds like crazy and with bad leadership they die before they ever get a chance to do any real damage.

Sniper drones are too expensive for a BS3 with a 50/50 of being BS4 that is solely Anti-Meq.

You will have a very hard time trying to stand up in a game with so many fragile units and missing out on Tau's big strength (Twin-linked S7 shots are vital) And I don't care what anyone says, FW are laughable compared to any other armies troops. Expensive, T3, poor BS, no options for weapons, and terrible leadership which is only offset by an armor save (That you'd get from most terrain) and a mid S gun.

Thanks for all the advice so far, i've updated the list and hopefully it's an improvement, i know it doesn't have much AV but i can't think of what else to add. please comment any changes you think are for the better, thanks.

Savageconvoy wrote:The only source of anti-tank weaponry is the Piranhas and the Hammerhead. Both of which are expensive and underperform. I only use the Hammerhead for the template, since a single shot rarely takes down anything. and Piranha are very vulnerable to infantry weapons. They get a good save, but it's too risky for this to be your main source of anti-tank firepower.

I know but apart from Broadsides or Crisis suits there isn't really anything else that's anti-tank, i gave a FB to the commander to help out a bit and the Firewarriors and Sniper drones should be able to wreck most transports so that the FB's and Railguns will only need to shoot at the more tougher vehicles.

Savageconvoy wrote:Sniper drones are too expensive for a BS3 with a 50/50 of being BS4 that is solely Anti-Meq.

I like them, and there use isn't exclusively for MEQs, they have a good chance at damaging transports awell, and with so many units from nearly all of the armys fitting under the category of "MEQ" they're useful to have. The Spotter has a TA as standard so it's a 2/3 chance of being BS4 and i could always use the markerlight for Firewarriors if i'm facing GEQs. The new rules for the stealth generator also means that it'll take alot of shots before they get taken out. I did take out one of the squads however as 3 was a bit excessive and i needed to afford other things.

Savageconvoy wrote:You will have a very hard time trying to stand up in a game with so many fragile units and missing out on Tau's big strength (Twin-linked S7 shots are vital) And I don't care what anyone says, FW are laughable compared to any other armies troops. Expensive, T3, poor BS, no options for weapons, and terrible leadership which is only offset by an armor save (That you'd get from most terrain) and a mid S gun.

Well they're much better than Kroot IMO and that's the only competition they have, most of Firewarriors strengths are from their guns being S5 and 30" which is so invaluable now that you can pre-measure so you shouldn't take any shots from Bolters and Gauss e.t.c. and the S5 compensates for their medicore BS, plus you can threaten most transports and landspeeders. They're not the best troops in the game but i wouldn't say they're the worst either.

Shadox wrote:To the OP: I'm not sold on the sniper drones at all. It's right that you lack weapons with good ap without the suits but even with the drones you will struggle against termis and other 2+ saves. One option (surely not the best one) would be to drown them in dices. So I would get more firewarriors and shas'uis-upgrades instead of the drones. If you have points to spare after this you can consider some Blacksunfilters first on the Hammerheads and after this on everything else.

I'm still not convinced that the Sniper drones shouldn't be in the list but like i said, one of the teams has gone. I agree with all of the other advice though and have added more Firewarriors and a FB to the commander so Terminators will eventually die. Hammerheads now have BSFs on aswell.